Meeting you on the other side
by Shikamaru-Nara2
Summary: Haseo and Alkaid are over come with emotion when Alkaid say's she's moving. This may be her last log in to The World. Will they ever see each others faces again...or will they be cursed to harbor these unexpressed emotions forever! Tell me...what does honeysuckle represent! Rewrite Start date: 6/5/2012
1. Goodbye Alkaid

Welcome to the first chapter of my first .hack//G.U fanfic! I hope I captured the characters and their personalities well. But I don't know if I got Haseo perfect because this is supposed to be after the 3rd game has ended, which I haven't even played or bought because most likely by the time you see this it isn't out yet! So bear with me those of you who know and tell me where I made vital mistakes. For example as a far as I know Canard is still in Del Dona and Haseo is still the arena champion (he had freakin better be! I did not get straight 9's in arena points for nothing!) But then again I suppose that scenes in the ending clip with Haseo on his knees and the crowd shouting finish him could have been him losing the title. Well that's enough rambling, see you in The Wolrd!

Good bye Alkaid

Ryou Misaki sat in front of his computer and ran his favorite game, The World, logging in as his character Haseo. He truly didn't have any reason to log back on. He had found tri-edge, reawakened his friend Shino and defeated Cubia. He often wondered why he still continued to log in. But the answer always came back the same, his friends.

Atoli, Silabus, Alkaid, old man Antares, Gaspard Kuhn, and Bo. Hack even Pi, Yata, Endrance, Saku and Piros 3rd had affected him in someway to make him want to continue playing.

Returning his attention to the screen he saw a flashing message saying he had new mail. He opened it to see that it read:

Hey Haseo, I have something important to tell you. Come to the root town Del Dona as soon as you get this message.

-Alkaid

Ryou could tell that something had to be wrong. Alkaid wasn't the kind of person who didn't tell you she was dragging you off, in her own words, super top secret training or telling you not to be late and she'd be the one who's late.

Adorning his FMD, Face mount display(the goggles for those who don't know), he logged into the world, feeling his conciousness slip from his world into that of The World. Upon arriving in te root town Del Dona in the form of his character Haseo he scanned the area and quickly spotted Alkaid sitting on the rock wall not far from the chaos gate.

He walked over to her side and called out her name, he didn't receive a response. "Alkaid are you listening" he questioned. He still received no answer. Growing annoyed he drew in his breath and shouted "Alkaid stop daydreaming already!"

This time however he did get a response out of her seeing as how she let out a surprised scream as she lost her balance before falling off the wall. "You idiot! What the hell was that for" she asked as she stood hands on hips looking absolutely furious.

"If you were paying attention I wouldn't have to yell" Haseo retorted.

"Well maybe I was trying to get my thoughts together!"

"What do you mean get your thoughts together? You told me to come meet you here because you had something important to tell me. You should already have your thoughts together!"

"Well I…Oh just never mind" she said turning away from him, arms crossed and cheeks huffed out.

Okay now he knew something was wrong now. If Alkaid didn't wish to finish an argument, something had to wrong.

"It's just…this is hard for me okay" she spoke in a low voice. "Can we go somewhere more…private? We've seemed to already caused a scene." They surveyed the area to see that other players had either stopped to stare or was hiding behind something hoping they won't be caught in the cross fire of the former terror of death and the former demon palace empress.

They moved from the open area of Del Dona to the home known as Canard. "Now what did you need to tell me that was so important" Haseo asked wanting to get straight to the point.

"Haseo…I'm moving" Alkaid said in a gloom filled voice.

Haseo just stared back looking annoyed "so?"

"Jeez you're such a insensitive jerk! At least let me finish will ya! Sheesh talk about no manners." She waited for a response but it never came. She took that as a sigh as either him being intent to listen or she had shut him up. To her it would always be the latter.

"Well like I was saying, I'm moving. Usually that would mean that I'd be logged out for a few days to a week tops. But I'm moving because of that 'incident.'"

He knew the exact incident she was speaking of. It was when she got PKed and fell comatose.

"My parents want me to leave The World…possibly for good. They said a change of scenery would do me some good." She turned her gaze to the ground. "So I just wanted to say good bye in case we never see each other again."

Haseo was absolutely speechless. It was as if he was losing her all over again. He felt all of the emotions from that day flowing through him again. He had to say something. "But that doesn't mean you have to quit, right? Once they see you're perfectly fine you'll be back, right?"

Alkaid forced a weak smiled. She momentarily switched of her mike so he couldn't hear her cry. Turning her mike back on she turned to face him "you're making this harder than I want it to be. Haseo this is…good bye."

Alkaid motioned to leave but was stopped when Haseo grabbed her arm. "Please Alkaid you can't just leave like this." It seemed as if he was begging. He pulled her into a tight embrace. "Promise me. Promise me you'll come back."

She blushed in his arms as she held her in one world. But in the other she was tearing up and sobbing. She knew she hadn't turned off her mike but she didn't care. "I promise Haseo" the words flowed from her lips involuntarily. She didn't know if they were true. But they both wished they were.

He released her knowing that if they continued any longer the pain of her departing would only hurt that much more. She turned to leave the home when a message appeared on her screen telling her said she had received an item from Haseo.

Checking her inventory she noticed she had one new item. I was a weapon, dual sword at that. But what really caught her attention was a single word in their title. That one word was honeysuckle. She turned back to him briefly "you dork" was the last thing she said. She logged out. How ever to them this log out was different then all the others. This log out felt as if Alkaid had logged off their world as friends or possibly more.

TBC

I know I'm probably going to be laughed at for saying this but writing that nearly made me cry. I seriously felt she had died on me again. Well that's enough mushy stuff. This is the narrator's part! And remember you have to imagine awesome anime cut scenes tolling by as he talks!

Narrator: Her log out felt like she was pulled from their world once again. Multiple feeling run rampant now that they may now longer see each others face again. Can they live on? And what's this about a new girl transferring to Ryou's school? There is just something about her that he can't put his finger out. Will he never figure out the identity of the girl or shall this girl fill the void in his heart. Tune in to another episode of "Meeting you on the other side!"


	2. Hello Chika

Sweet, good feed back so far! Good reviews and a nice sum of readers considering that few people check this section. We seriously need a .hack//G.U section under games because people would actually check there!!! But we all know that might not happen so we'll just work here. Oh and before I get started, Ryou Misaki actually does look nearly the same as his character Haseo the only difference is that his hair isn't spiky and looks more like his hair style in the Xth form. Well enough talking and let's log into The World!

Hello Chika

Ryou sat at his desk staring out the window. He sighed as he stared across the court yard. He was in school. In fact the bell signaling the start of class hadn't even rung see as how other students were walking around talking to others. He wasn't in the mood to talk for he was still slightly depressed over Alkaid's absence from The World. The bell rang bringing his thoughts. All students stood behind their desk to greet their teacher before taking their seats.

"Good morning students" he said greeting them back. "I have an announcement to make" he paused waiting until the students gave him their undivided attention, except for Ryou's whose thoughts were elsewhere. "We have a new a new student joining us today" he waved his hand signaling the person in. Ryou looked from the corner of his eye to see that the new student was female about 5'1, she wore the same dark blue sailor uniform that all of the girls wore, which fit her quite well I might ad. She had messy chestnut hair that reached her shoulder framing her face well making her look kind of cute even more so that the matched her eyes.

"This is Miss Chika Kuramoto" he said introducing her to the class. Ryou's instantly snapped up upon recognizing the first name. If memory served him correctly the player behind Alkaid was named Chika. How ever on the other hand she never told him her last name. He looked the girl over once again. He noted some similarities between the two. The teacher continued on to say "she recently moved here from Sapporo, Hokkaido."

Ryou's ears perked up when he heard she recently moved. This was either god messing with him a very bad coincidence or…the player behind Alkaid. He tooks a look at her again this time imagining her in Alakid's clothing. The only true difference he could spot was the the hair color, but then again in the world anyone could be anything. Gaspard was a prime example.

The teacher surveyed the room before looking over in Ryou's direction noticing there was an empty desk next to him. "Why don't you take the seat next to Mr. Ryou Misaki" he said as he gestured over to the empty seat next to him. Ryou glared back at the teacher because they both knew Ryou didn't prefer the company of others seeing as how at some point the person felt uncomfortable around him due his personality of him to being cold to everyone along with his ice cold glares that seemed to peirce into one soul. Yet strangely he was number one on the list of guys the girls of the school wanted to date.

As the school year passed the seat infront and behind him were filled but the one at his side remained empty, until today as the the chestnut haired girl took her newly appointed seat. She smiled at him "hello nice to meet you Ryou." A whisper spread around the class seeing as noone had ever tried to talk to him, not even the girls. Yet suddenly this new girl Ryou said nothing as he looked the girl over once again. He made a grunt showing he wasn't interested. Her eyebrow twitched skightly along with her smile "in case you aren't aware of it, you're being very rude!" A hush fell over the crowd at Chika's latest outburst.

Even Ryou found himself speachless before the girl who met his glare. It wasn't that he didn't have anything to say. It was her voice. The sound of her voice was just like, hers. Ryou turned his head giving a muffled apology. Another whisper spread through the class seeing as the had never thought it possible for Ryou to even attemopt an apology. 'Just what about made him act so different' was the thought that everyone had running threw their minds.

The rest of the day proceeded as any other school day, except for their literature class. The book they were reviewing today _Romance of the three kingdoms_. Ryou never planned to be very active in class, ever. But today he had to test something. He raised his hand to answer a question he knew the answer too, thanks to Alakid constantly talking about it. But he purpousfully answered it wrong! And just as he expected the new girls hand shot up to correct his error. After that the class proceeded with both of them facing off answering each question the teacher threw at him.

The bell sounded signaling the start of the lunch period. Ryou watched as other around him shifted around the classroom to join their friends in conversation as they ate together. Seeing as how Ryou tended to ignore people no one actually tried to sit near him. Looking to his side he saw that the new girl remained unmoved as she took out her lunch. He noticed the slight smell of ramen and miso in the air.

He ate his lunch in peace taking brief glance to his side to look at the girl. When she finished her lunch she quietly packed up her things before leaving the room. Ryou watched her leave the room before he too left the room. The class momentarily fell silent as the watched him leave the room. Ryou had never left the room before. Even stranger the had all noticed Chika leave the room as well. They all came to a conclusion, the two were up to something. They sent out a small group of students to spy on the two.

Ryou walked down the hall, his target still within view, unaware that he himself was being followed. When he reached the end of the hall a few turns later a voice said "why are you following me?" He turned to see the 5'1 girl staring up at him arms crossed looking furious.

"I needed to ask you something important."

Chika's eyebrow gave a slight twitch "so all of a suddent Mr. I'm too good to talk to the new girls wants to talk!" She jabbed him in the chest with her inde finger. "Oh I see how it is, when some one want to talk to you they don't exist but you expect the whole world to stop when you want to ask a question?" She raised her fist as if to take a swing at him "why I 'outta-"

"What do honeysuckles symbolize" Ryou said cutting her off.

Chika's eyes widened at his words as her fist relaxed in the air before dropping to her side. "W…what did you say?" She took a step back a hand placed over her heart as if to ease it's now rapid beats.

"I said 'what do honeysuckles symbolize" Ryou said advancing closer to the poor girl, who took a step back.

"They mean 'devoted affection,' why?" A small blush reached Chika's cheeks as she continued to back away but her attempts were stopped when her back met the wall. She saw a small smirk reach her pursuers lips, she cringed in fear. "What do you want you freak!" She was summoning up all the courage she had within her to stand her ground when suddenly he started laughing. "What? What's so funny?!" she stared back at him her cheeks huffed out.

"You hadn't noticed have you?" Ryou said still slightly laughing.

"Noticed what?" she said still not catching on. She suddenly felt herself being pulled into a tight embrace. She squirmed in his arms "what the hell do you think you're doing? Let me go!"

"Not just yet" he whispered in her ear.

"W-what do you mean?!"

Ryou buried his head in the crook of her neck "you left my life once and I fought to bring you back…but you left my life again but this time I wasn't sure if I could bring you back. This time I couldn't just yell at it hack at and hope it would help me get you back. I thought I had lost you forever, my empress."

The words played through her mind over and over. There was only one person that could speak those words to her. But what sealed the deal was when he had called her 'his empress'. She was sure that neither of them was of royal decent so the only other conclusion was that this person knew that she had once been the demon palace empress of the game known as The World. Not even her closest friends from her previous school knew that. There were only two people that could know that, Haseo and Silabus. But Silabus was never told about the honeysuckle incident. That could only mean…

"H-Haseo…" she said in a faint voice so only he could here.

Ryou released her and smiled before saying "it's nice to see you again Alkaid."

Chika looked as if she was about to cry but in a flash he expression switched to rage as slapped his cheek. "You stupid jerk!"

Ryou rubbed his cheek and stared back at her huffing figure. "What did I do?!"

"You should have told me it was you! I thought some sicko was going to try to take advantage of me" she said stomping her foot.

Ryou motioned his hands to tell her to quite down as he looked around to see if anyone heard. "But it was kind of fun to see your expression."

"Fun?! That wasn't fun! What if I ended up breaking your arms and legs?!"

Ryou laughed again before giving a light smile "You're so cute when you're mad Chika." Chika blushed as she stared back at him as he turned to walk away trying to figure out why he'd call her by her real name and not just addressed her as Alkaid along with the fact he called her cute. She understood in second. He didn't want anyone to figure out that both the ex-terror of death who was also the arena emperor and the ex-demon palace empress went to their school. They'd never get a moment of peace.

Ryou looked back at her momentarily "are you coming or what?"

Chika gave a slight giggle "Yeah" Chika nodded at him with a small on her face. She rushed to catch up with him so they could walk back to class together.

TBC

2nd chapter over! But that doesn't mean the stories over! We can't just leave it like this! So I'm turning you over to the narrator!

Narrator: Haseo and Alkaid have found each other once again. But now they have found each other in the flesh as their human forms as Ryou Misaki and Chika Kuramoto. But they can't be happy just yet. Unknown to them those two spies heard nearly every word. Their identities on The World may have been compromised or they could still be safe. Find out on another episode of 'Meeting you on the other side' a .hack//G.U fanfic!


	3. Infection

In celebration of .hack//G.U vol.3 redemption being released in America I've decided to shun my other two fics for now to make another chapter for this fic! Yes Naruto and beyblades .hack//G.U takes that much priority over you! Plus if you can complain I'm smack you with this pulls out scythe known simply as ticking death note: this is not a spoiler because you can unlock this weapon in vol.2 heck you were forced to, to advance the story line! But if you haven't got to that point yet someone's going to get pked! On another note I'm surprised no one noticed that I put a line that belonged to blackrose in the last chapter. Well enough talk time to put on our FMD's and log into The World!

Infection

Chika Kuramoto walked down isle after of the grocery store yet still couldn't find the item she desperately sought. With a heavy sigh she nearly gave up but decided to ask a worker restocking the lower shelves. "Um excuse me sir do you know where I can find the…"

"C-Chika, why are you here?!" A surprised voice said calling out her name.

Looking up from her grocery list she saw the male's surprised face staring back up at her, his yellow eyes wide and bright, his cheeks bright red. "R-Ryou" she let out a small laugh.

"What's so funny?" Ryou questioned sounding annoyed as he stood to face her.

She sighed as she whipped a stray tear from her face "it's just that I never expected you of all people to be here! And you work here at that." (Fact: Ryou does work in a grocery store, thus the reason why he acted as such when he was in charge of the guild shop.)

Ryou scratched his head as he heaved a sigh "we all have to make a living somehow. Plus my father is rarely home so I'm just killing time." (also a fact: his dad works for a large company therefore he is rarely home and when he is it's only for a few hours which is most likely just to sleep. His mom, don't know. Maybe the absence of parents caused him to start replaying what started the "incident")

"Aww, you poor baby" Chika said as she pinched one of his cheeks before he knocked her hand away. "You know this is kind of weird, me seeing you like this I mean."

"How is that" he asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"I mean think about it. I fall into a coma but before I do you're there. Then when I'm leaving The World for possibly forever the only person of the member addresses I have that shows up to say goodbye is you! I move to a new school and you're there and I sit next to you! And finally I run into you at the store" Chika said counting off all the strange things that revolved around the two.

"What does that last one have to do with anything? It's possible to run into plenty of people you know at the store everyone knows that" Ryou retorted trying not to acknowledge the fact that fate seemed to enjoy making his life awkward.

"I know but we're standing in the candy isle" she said letting out a sigh as she massaged her forehead.

Ryou glared at her annoyed "so."

Chika let out something between an agitated sigh. "You have no sense of romance you know that!"

"What does romance have anything to do with standing in the candy isle?"

Chika gently massaged her temples. "It's easy if you think about it. What does people usually look for in candy? They want it to be sweet!" She gave her explanation but it was obvious that he hadn't caught on because he was nodding as if telling her to finish. She made up her mind it was time for something on the drastic side.

She touched a hand lightly to his cheek, she leaned in to the point that her lips was less then an inch from his ear. He felt her gentle breathing tickle his cheek causing his cheeks to flare. She then tenderly whispered "maybe it's to mean I'm supposed to be your sweet heart." She then moved away and just smiled at him.

Ryou's mind now clouded in confusion tried to piece together a response. He almost had it when he heard her let a small that she tried to pretend never existed but her acting failed her as she burst out in laughter. "W-what is it?" Ryou questioned regaining himself.

"Your face!" she said holding her side with one hand the other pointing at him.

"M-my face?"

Chika whipped a tear off her cheek from laughing so hard "You just looked so funny after I said that. I mean really the terror of death reduced to a mindless idiot by a girl." He laughing then proceeded to pick back up.

"Shut up!"

Chika's laughing stopped cold. "What's wrong with you all of a sudden?"

"I said shut up! I've spent enough time playing. I need to get back to work." He then turned back to restocking the shelves.

Well then maybe if you are so focused on work why don't you help me find what I'm looking for?" she asked stamping her foot.

"Three rows over to the left. Walk to the middle of the isle and look to your right." Ryou continued what he was doing not even looking back at her. He didn't have to. There was only one thing she could have possibly been looking for. Ramen.

"So that's it huh? You're gonna get all pissed and act like everything you said never happened! Everything we've been through, all we've talked about? And youre just gonna throw that out the window because of joke" Chika or rather Alkaid said sounding furious.

"I'm not a toy. You can't just play with emotions."

"Oh well so I've gone and hurt your feelings? What ever happened to the guy that stood up for him self saying he would beat me! The guy who stood up to every last bad name I gave to him and yet somehow got me join his group and above all else earned my trust and respect" her glare bore into his back but he didn't so much as flinch.

"You were also the one who told me not to toy with her feelings weren't you?" Ryou said in a cold voice giving her an over the shoulder, icy, stare.

Chika felt her world shatter around her. That had really hurt. It was as if a dagger laced with poison had been plunged into her chest and now the poison was working through her slowly causing her to break down. With her last ounce of strength she scribbled something on her grocery list before throwing it at him. It bounced off the back of his head and laid on the ground unnoticed. She then exited the isle fuming.

Ryou just sighed as he continued working but not before picking up the paper he was hit with. "you blew that rather spectaculary didn't you…Haseo?" a voice said to him. Wait, that voice!!! It wasn't his and it wasn't in his head! He turned to see a pair of legs in front of him.

Ryou was shocked. Only three people knew about his true self out of The World, Shino, Chika and Himself. Technically Pi as well but she found out the stalker kind of way. "H-how did you…"

"You wanna know how we know you're the legendary PKK the terror of death Haseo?" Another voice said. But this time more feminine. A girl stepped out from behind the boy holding a small black box. The box appeared to be a tape recorder. He recognized the girl from one of his school. "I could tell you but this way is much more fun." She hit the play button on the recorder. The sound of Ryou's and Chika's conversation from when she first moved to the school played before the girl stopped it having already proved what she knew.

"You were following us? What the hell is you're problem?"

"You are actually. You think you're too good for everyone. Now I have something that gives me the ability to have you at me every beck and call. Just think the terror of death as my personal hit man." The boy gave an evil snicker.

"Like hell I'd ever work for you!" Ryou retorted having nothing else to say.

"Fine don't, but remember I let this get out and you'll never have a peaceful moment again. In this world or The World." The boy smirked at Ryou. His greatest nightmare had come true. He was gonna be bombarded with a ton of spam mail. There was no way this could get worse.

"Don't forget Ryou here is gonna become my boyfriend" she wrapped both arms around his neck so that their faces were barely inches apart. "Isn't that right Ryou?" It just got worse. Ryou felt sick to his stomach. Not because he was being forced into all of this. But because what was the cause of this was Chika and he had threw it away. There was no way that this could get worse.

As if fate had wanted his life to be miserable the one person he didn't want to see this rounded the corner. One miss Chika Kuramoto. "Hey Ryou I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I guess that I just…w-what?" She stared at the sight before her. Ryou in the arms of another girl. She shook her head trying to wish the image away but it wouldn't disappear. This time she turned and ran but not before a tear could be seen rolling down her cheek.

"Chika wait!" Ryou struggled in the girls arm.

"But Haseo we have so much to do today" the girl said reminding him what kind of situation he was in.

"Get off of me!" he shouted as he threw the girls arms off him and ran to the exit of the store. Looking around he didn't catch a single glimpse of the girl. He sighed to himself. 'The world really like to toy with me doesn't it?' he thought to himself.

As he walked through the store he pulled out the paper that Chika had threw at him and unballed it. The paper had several digits written on it with the words 'call me' written under them. The numbers were obviously her phone number.

Pulling out his phone he dialed the number. The phone rang once and he heard the faint ringing of another phone in the background. He followed it as best as he could but the phone switched to the answering machine. He dialed it again. This time he was close. He followed the sound and found what he was looking for. He found a girl outside of the stores bathroom, curled tightly into a corner, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. The girl sat crying a phone on the ground next to her ringing.

Ryou hung up his phone "Chika…I" he called to her. He didn't get a response. The girl didn't even acknowledge him being there. But he knew she had heard him. He pulled out his phone once again and dialed Chika's number.

She momentarily shifted her gaze towards Ryou before reaching down and picking up her phone. She answered it, "what do you want?"

"I just want to talk to you, that's all."

"There is nothing to talk about. You talk about how I was leading you on but the truth was you felt bad because you were just toying with me. You wanted your prize in both the virtual and real world."

"Come on it's not like that Chika you see…"

She cut him off tears still running down her cheek, "yes I saw! I saw that girl with her arms around your neck. You were loving every minute of it weren't you? You just never though I'd see and you could have us both. I'm not that kind of girl Ryou. I just…"

This time it was Ryou doing the cutting off "they found out about us!"

She didn't understand. Her rage pushed her far beyond reasoning. "Oh so you'e saying your little plan backfired before you could advance it huh? Whatever, I don't care anymore. I'm done talking." She hung up the phone and began to rush pass him but stopped when she felt something grab her wrist and pulled her back. She knew exactly what it was. "Let me go! I don't want to talk to you Ryou." She was then pressed up against the wall.

"Then don't talk! Just listen!" he watched her squirm in his arms. He knew she wasn't going to listen so he took action. Using one hand he steadied her head before letting his lips lightly touch hers. Caught off guard Chika's eye's shot open before slowing closing as she relaxed into it. Her phone slipping from her grasp in the process. The moment lasted about a minute before Ryou ended it. "Now will you listen to me?" He looked down at the girl who was still crying. "I was saying they're black mailing us. They heard us talking." He brushed away a stream of tears from the girls cheek before he kissed it. "It wasn't my fault. She thought by threatening me she'd get to have me…But" he kissed her cheek again "my heart already belongs to someone. Please Chika, please won't you be my empress and stay by my side?" He kissed her cheek once last time.

Chika's sobs could be heard welling up again as she stared back up at him. "Let me go!" She shoved Ryou to the side before picking up her phone and running off. Ryou knew there was no sense in running after her now. She needed to be alone at this point.

Ryou rested his hand over one of his eyes partly brushing back his hair. He gave a small laugh. "The world really must like messing with me!"

TBC

Akira (AKA Blackrose's user): I'm handling the ending rant this time because the writer is being a baby and crying about the ending.

Me: I am not!

Akira: whatever, well anyway he wanted to me to tell you guys that also in honor of the new game he is gonna name each of the following chapters after one of the first .hack games. Since this one was infection that means mutation is next. Followed by outbreak and quarantine. So don't miss it! And if he does as another tribute you had better notice!!! Well to the narrator.

Narrator: You saw it yourself. The process has started and now the gears are turning. What hold in the near future for Chika and Ryou. Will they be forced to work for the blackmailer? Or will they stand tall and fault. But first they must prove true that love conquers all by salvaging what they have left. Find out on episode 4. Mutation of "Meeting you on the other side!" Put on your FMD's and enter those keywords for this is a special event you don't want to miss!


	4. Mutation  Outbreak

I ran into a bit of a problem when writing mutation. Hey, hey what's with the bats?! I never said it was a big problem. Well the problem is technically about size. You see. My original plan for mutation made the chapter to short which lead me to believe I'd be attacked with bats. So I did the most sensible thing…I made Mutation and Outbreak into one big chapter!!!! Well enough chit chat and lets Jack in…huh wrong anime/game? Well then, denpa henkan, wave ride on! On air!...Still wrong? Okay then here we go! Put on your FMD's and log into The World! Right? Whew Finally.

Mutation + Outbreak

The bell tolled signaling the end of school for the day. It had been a full week sense the incident in the store. Ryou's eyes drifted to the seat next to his. Chika's seat. She was already gone. She seemed to be avoiding him this past week. Whenever he tried to speak to her she ignored him. Whenever he tried to call he got voice mail. Whenever he tried to pass a note to her in class she acted as if it never existed.

Ryou sighed to himself as he collected his things. His thoughts momentarily drifting back to his and Chika's little moment they shared before she left. He shook head trying to clear his mind of the thoughts. But who was he kidding, if not now then later. At some point he was going to think about that moment again. But he had to admit it her lips sure were nice. He shook his head and stared out the classroom widow and watched other students leaving the school in droves. But the one student he needed to see wasn't in that crowd. "Chika, where are you?"

Ryou turned to leave when suddenly he was met with a smiling girls face. "Hey Ryou!" she said as she waved at him from point blank. It was the crazy stalker girl with the tape. But here little friend wasn't with her.

"What do you want Mia?" Ryou spat. (I finally named the girl)

"Oh nothing, I just want you to walk me home…"

"No I have better things to do." Ryou replied in uncaring tone.

"And maybe we could stop in the park and you know hold each other" the girls continued obviously ignoring what he said. "Then maybe we could kiss under the setting sun and-"

"Shut up!" Ryou shouted silencing the girl. "Look I don't like you. You're annoying and you make me sick." He glared at her. (Sasuke Uchiha tribute!)

The girl just giggled it off "Ryou you're so funny" she placed a hand on his shoulder as she leaned close. Then she whispered "Don't forget what position you're in my little…Haseo" the way she said his characters name was low, almost like a moan. Quite frankly it freaked Ryou out. "Remember if you rub me the wrong way, well actually you can rub me wrongly a little" she giggled again. Ryou wanted to puke. "But in all seriousness you piss me off and this gets out." She waved the recorder in front of Ryou's face.

His eyes widened when he say the little black box. He made a grab for it but the girl moved it out of the wave and held it above his head. The girl wagged a finger on her free hand at him to show that he wasn't going to get it that easily. He gritted his teeth and glared at her before lightly backing off to look off to the side. He hadn't given up just yet. He was searching for anyway for him to be able to get that cursed box from her. His eyes momentarily drifted to a notebook left on a desk. He made a grab for it. With great speed he brought it up and used it to knock the recorder into the air. He pulled his arm back and shouted "Sparrow counter!" He couldn't resist. He swung his arm forward hitting the recorder sending it into the wall. It shattered upon impact.

The girl stared at the recorder that lay in a crumpled heap. A smirk was spread across Ryou's face as he walked out of the room. "Now all that leaves is talking to Chika…but where is she? Come on Ryou think! What does she like?" He said to himself trying to collect his thoughts. "Okay she likes ramen, comedy, books, she was the leader of her previous schools library council…I'm an idiot." He took off running down the hallway heading for the only lead he had to go on, the library. (A/N: do I sound like a stalker knowing all this stuff about her?)

Ryou pushed through the door with a loud crash and was greeted with a wave of shushes. He didn't care though. He gazed around the library and saw multiple students shuffling around with books. They were obviously members of his schools library club. He walked through the isles upon isles of books his gaze shifting to see if he could spot the girl he sought. Several shelves later he found her putting books that's rested on a cart back on the shelves. However she was having a little trouble trying to put a book on a shelf that was a little to high.

Ryou sighed as he walked over. He grabbed the book from her and placed it on the shelf. The girl turned to him with a smile, Ryou felt as if he was flying for that one moment. "Thanks…" the smile took a turn for the worst and down came crashing Ryou! "What do you want Ryou?"

"Chika, you really should frown. You look much cuter when you smile." Ryou simply smiled as he said this.

A small hint of crimson reached her cheeks "that besides the point! Now why are you here?" She yelled a little to loudly seeing as she was the quieted by a mass of shushes.

"It's the same thing as a week ago. I want to talk to you." Ryou replied.

"I'm sorry but I have club business to attend to" she then turned back to putting away books.

Ryou sighed before taking a book off the cart. "Then I guess I'll just have to join the library club then." He said in an attitude that was both up beat and remorseful.

"Like…" she was shushed again but this time only by Ryou because he could tell what was coming next was going to be loud. "Like hell you are" she said in a low whisper."

"If you at least hear me out I won't"

"Got to hell!" she shouted/whispered before she checked the cart to see if any other books belonged in the current area they were in.

Ryou just sighed before he walked over to here and placed his arms around her waist getting a surprised gasp to escape her lips. "Please just hear me out and I'll go."

She turned to face him "if I didn't believe you one week ago so what makes you think I'll believe you-mph" the rest of her words were lost seeing how Ryou had pressed their lips together. He broke it "I already told you, I've lost you way to much. This time I'm not legging go."

Before Chika even had time to protest he pressed their lips together. But this time it was much deeper. Her mind was swimming as her eyes fluttered shut. Her legs felt weak under her, if not for the fact that she was bracing her self against the cart they'd have easily ended up on the floor. Thought after thought seemed to fade from her mind. Only two thoughts now remained. One was screamed to forgive him while the other screamed knee him in the groin and walk away.

Within seconds her mind was made up. Placing her hands on his cheeks he forced them to part. She looked up at Ryou who seemed to have a mixed expression as he waited for her response. "Ryou I-" she stopped when the sudden sound of someone clearing their throat.

The pair turned to the side to see the boy and girl from before standing there. Moment killed. "I'm sorry were we interrupting something?"

"Yes!" they both said in unison.

The boy went on to continue as he reached into his pocket "Well that doesn't matter anymore because you see-"

Ryou smirked "Look Ikki you're guns shooting blanks now. I smashed that stupid recorder of yours." The boy pulled out a phone "so why don't you just leave us the heck alone…huh" he stared at the phone to see a video playing of his and Chika's little meeting in the hallway where they both could be heard referring to the other by their online names.

"So you were actually serious" Chika said as she looked up at Ryou. She gave a weak laugh as she scratched the back of her head. "Sorry."

This time Mia cleared her throat. "I think you're forgetting who is in control here." She pulled out her own phone "I press this button and this video goes out to my friends."

"And if I press this one, the video goes out to my friends." The boy smirked.

"So if you don't want spam mail from everyone once the word gets out" the girl made her way over to Ryou. "So why don't you and I-Ahh!!!" The girl let out a small yell as she felt a tug on her hair.

Strands of the girl's hair were firmly grasped in Chika's hand. "How about Ryou and I stay and you two leave." She then gave the girls hair a tug to toss her back over with the boy.

The girl scoffed as she looked at the two. "Such a weakling. Just because he's the terror of death in The World doesn't mean he can scare anyone here!"

"Look whose talking miss blackmail!" Chika stamped her foot as she yelled. Once again she was shushed.

"What about you! The so called mighty ex-leader of the demon palace siding with the one that defeated her in combat. Hell you even fell in love with him! What are you hoping that he'll give you the title or share it with you?"

Chika's eye brow twitched. There was one thing that you never try to tarnish that belonged to Chika. It was one of the things she held dear. It was her honor. Question it and she'd kick you ass whether in The World's arena or in the real world. (Fact) "I'll kick your ass!" She lunged at the girl, who flinched. But Chika never made contact seeing how Ryou was holding her back to the point it looked like she was just kicking, punching and screaming at the air.

"Calm down" Ryou said as he held her before gently kissing her cheek which made her calm down almost completely for she still glared at the pair as she growled.

"They seem to have no will to cooperate" the boy said as he sighed.

The girl clicked her tongue as she stared at the two. "Whatever. Let's get this over with," the both punched the send button. As chime rang in the air signaling the that the message had been sent.

All stood quiet before the sound of a low humming sound could be heard. It was as if something was vibrating. Ryou and Chika both pulled out their phones to see that they had quite a few new messages and their numbers just continued to increase. They both selected a message and opened it. One of Ryou's messages read:

Hey Ryou, didn't peg you as one to play the world. Why don't you drop me a party request sometime. I wanna see if you are really as good as the legends say. And who's the girl? She's kinda cute.

Chika blushed slightly when she saw the end of the message. She turned to hers which read:

C-Chika-chan I didn't know you were behind the character archenemy Alkaid. To think the person I looked up was the very same person I swore I must defeat. Just because you found a new guy doesn't mean I'll give you my precious Silabus!!!

Chika had already figured out who this person was. There was a girl in her old class that tried to change herself to be more like her. To think that girl was the same girl that partied with her and Silabus. (Fact: before Alkaid became the palace emperor she was really good friends with Silabus and they originally planned to win the crown together. But they were joined by a new character who fell in love with Silabus. They constantly fought but I don't think Chika ever realized the reason. At some point Silabus was pked by Borduexe who revealed that the girl was once a member of kestrel which led to a falling out. Apparently they never realized the were classmates and the girl was the same girl that looked up to Chika.)

"So what's this about you and Silabus?" Ryou asked slightly annoyed by the fact he didn't know about her past with Silabus and the fact that Silabus was such a kick ass player that teamed up with Alkaid! (No wonder he kicks so much ass in the games)

"Nothing" Chika said waving it off.

Suddenly out of the blue a horde of students surrounded the two and pulled them apart. They had only come for one thing. Member addresses.

The next few days continued on as any other week. Except for the fact that Ryou aka Haseo had to deal with a load of parting with other player of The World. Plus due to Chika still not being able to log back in he was forced to take on her half of the quest. He was absolutely fed up with it. There was only one way to get them to stop this madness. He sent an E-mail to CCcorp. But he knew they'd never believe he was blackmailed into this so he had to disguise it as something. That was a few days ago. He was now talking on the phone with the one person who wouldn't have actually mind partying with, Chika. "Don't worry I have a plan." He said to her as he checked through his email. More like checking off completed quest with others.

"Are you sure you'll be fine? I mean you have been taking on a lot of quest." She sounded a little depressed that she couldn't help out. "I'm trying to convince my parents I'm fine but I don't think its working."

"Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Don't worry I know that as long as I have your support I'll be fine."

Even though he couldn't tell he knew that Chika was blushing on the other side of the line. "I know, I know. It's because I'm your empress." She let out a playful giggle.

"Wow."

"Wow what?" she questioned.

"Never thought you'd be one to giggle."

"Hey even though I'm one of the toughest characters in The World I'm still just a pure and innocent girl at heart."

Ryou knew it was better to not contradict her or he'd end up with a phone down his throat. He looked over his mail and noticed that he had a new message. The sender was CCcorp. He smirked as he read the letter. "Chika, our problems will be over a lot sooner than I thought.

TBC

Me: I came off as a total stalker in this one.

Mireille (daughter of Mistral from the original .hackers): Perv alert! My rare item tells me a perv is near by.

Me: do you and your items wanna end up in a lake?

Mireille: well then you shouldn't have stalked the poor girl!

Me: I didn't! It's called wikipedia.

Mireille: I don't know. I mean you're know a lot about her!

Me: leave now or I'll have balmung schedule another event

Mireille: No not that! Not after the last time.

Me: well anyway on a side note the next chapter is the final one…maybe. I didn't want to do three more chapters (guess the names) but they are technically a side story. But then again they could be good. Or they could be bad. I'll leave it to you fans to decide. Not narrator do your thing!

Narrator: I don't get paid enough for this. Well next time on Meeting you on the other side the answer to their prayers has arrived. A massive letter has been sent to all players of the world! This will either make or break the pairs chance at freedom. What is it that could possibly end this madness? A massive online battle royal!!! When all else fails you open a can of whoop ass! But can Haseo do it alone? For he must face every single player that shows for the event. No breaks, no items, no mercy. You'll find all this out in quarantine, possibly the final chapter in this series! Gonna burn some muscle! I mean see you on the next log in!


	5. Quarantine

This is it guys! The POSSIBLY final chapter of this fic! WARNING this chapter contains slight spoilers to the ending of .hack//G.U. Well the marriage ending anyway. If you can't figure out which one why are you even reading this fic? By the way I may, MAY do three extra chapters but that's if the readers want me to. But so far I've gotten no feed back so that idea may be out the window. Oh and just so you know this chapter is a little long. Longer than expected really, makes me wonder if I should have mixed outbreak with this. Well enough talking and put on your FMD's because were logging into "The World"

Quarantine

Our lovely pair sat tucked away in a corner booth of a local ice cream parlor they decided to stop in after let out for the week. They sat across from each other enjoying their own separate milkshakes. Chika had strawberry while Ryou had plain old vanilla, but he had barely touched his. Chika looked at him slightly peeved. "Come on Ryou this is our first date. You can at least try to enjoy the time alone we have right now."

"What are you talking about? We've spent plenty of time together this week."

Ryou was referring to this past week since he got the e-mail from the CCcorp GM's (general mods or game master). Everyday after school the two would walk together to Ryou's home for personal time. This timed contained them kissing, talking, holding each other as they lay on the couch watching the television. Of course they couldn't spend that much time together seeing how Chika would need to get home before her parents so they wouldn't notice she was gone. Luckily her house was only a few blocks further from the school then his. Of course Ryou made sure she got home safely.

She huffed out her cheeks "fine whatever then" she turned away from him and took a sip from her shake. She heard him give a small laugh. She gave a faint growl as she looked at him from the corner of her eye. "What" she said angrily.

"Nothing it's just that you just look so cute when you're mad" he gave a small grin.

"W-what" Chika stammered at his response, a light blush spread across her cheeks.

"No seriously. For all the time I've known you in "The World" and in person every time you've gotten mad I've just thought how cute you were." He smiled at her again.

Chika's face nearly turned beet red. Trying to avoid his gaze she turned hers towards her lap. She suddenly felt something brush gently against her cheek. Looking up she say Ryou's face grinning back at her. "Strawberry" was all he said. It was relatively simple to figure out. She obviously had a small amount of her shake on her the corner of her mouth before he removed it with a kiss. She stared back at him and gingerly whispered his name.

She was about to return the favor when her phone began to vibrate. They both mentally swore as Ryou slumped back in his seat. Chika groaned as she answered the phone. But suddenly sat bolt upright when she heard the voice on the other end. "Oh hello mom!"

Ryou's eyes snapped open "What, mom? I thought your parents-" he was silenced when Chika placed a single finger over his lips.

"You want me home…right now…it's important...Can't it wait til…fine I'm on my way right now." She groaned as she hung up the phone and swiftly began to gather her things. "Apparently both my parents got off work early and they want to talk to me about something. Sorry but I gotta go now!" She gave him a quick kiss on the cheeks before she began to stand.

"I'll make sure you get home okay" Ryou said with a groan as he rushed after her.

Their walk home wasn't the same the normal kind they usually had where they got to enjoy their time ask the quietly walked together. Strangely Ryou had roughly twenty to thirty random e coming up to slap him on the back and tell him good luck. But the worst part was the girls! Some of them just gently rubbed his arm while others were bold and went into a full blown hug and they all said "can't wait till later Haseo" once again calling him by his net name.

All of this Chika had a problem with. By the time they reached her home Ryou could feel her glare burning into his back "and just what were all those people talking about…Haseo?" she asked calling him his online name as well. But the way she said it sent a chill down his spine.

"N-nothing" he replied with a nervous laugh.

"I don't think all of those different people knowing something that I don't can be qualified as nothing" she continued to glare at him.

"Really it's nothing" he said repeating himself, but his plan was foiled when another girl said she couldn't wait until later. Chika just sighed and looked a little depressed as she turned to walk away. But she was stopped when he felt him spin her around before he pressed their lips together and backed her against a wall. He broke the kiss and said "really it's nothing. It'll all be over by tomorrow, I promise. Then we can spend the whole day together, okay?"

Even though she stared directly back at him, her face a deep crimson, she had only caught a few bits and pieces. Regaining her senses she playfully punched his arm "it's not fair when you do that." This was the fourth time he had pulled something like this (read previous chapters). And each time he did it she gave into him and could forgive him for anything…or eventually.

Chika then briskly walked to her door. She gave him a small wave and blew Ryou a kiss before she entered the dwelling. Ryou sighed to himself before looking skyward "this is gonna be a long day."

Inside her home Chika roamed from room to room searching for her parents but no matter how hard she looked she couldn't find them. It wasn't until she arrived in the kitchen that she noticed that they had left a note for her on the fridge. It read: "Dear lovely daughter of mine" Chika slightly grimaced at that line. She just knew this note had to be from her mother. She continued to read "me and your father were just invited to the neighbors a few door over. Apparently it's a welcome to the neighborhood party. Sorry if it sound like we're suddenly ditching you but we did have to talk to you about something. Well since we have seen great improvement in your health ever since your little hospital visit (you call a coma a hospital visit?) we've decided that you can start replaying that little game yours. Have fun!"

Chika just stared at the note for a few peaceful before she screamed "you call that important?! You pulled me away from a nice relaxing date with Ryou for this? And then when I get home I found out you ditch me to part with your friends." She sighed "well at least I come out ahead in this in one part.

She made her way up stairs and to her room and turned on her computer. She selected the program entitled "The World" and watched as the ALTIMIT OS background appeared telling her that it was loading. A second later she was greeted by her by her in-game desktop which featured the members of Icolo, Sirius, Taihaku and herself. She smiled as the image brought back memories before a message popped up saying she had over 500 new messages! She didn't bother checking through them all seeing how the first twenty or so were composed of request from other users for her to help them and then messages that said never mind and that Haseo had taken care of it. "He's really been working hard to make sure they wouldn't over burden me" she briefly paused "he really is my knight in shining armor." She highlighted all of the messages and prepared to hit the delete button when she recognized a letter from CCcorp that had arrived just a week ago. It was the newest message she had.

She thought it was a little strange considering that one week ago Ryou had told her that he had got a message back from CCcorp. She opened the letter to see that it was entitled 'Special event: Mass player melee' something about that title didn't sit to well with her. The letter continued to say:

Greeting devoted fans of the MMORPG game "The World" we would like to inform you that for one time only we will be holding a very special competition in the arena! We have entitled it the 'Mass Player Melee' seeing as how this event is open to anyone and everyone who plays the world no matter what level! The rules are the same as any other arena battle except you will be pitted against one single team made up of 1-3 players while the team you are apart of numbers are of an infinite possibility! The teams you will be facing will be lead by none other then our current sage palace emperor and the legendary PKK the terror of death, Haseo! His team is only allowed up to how ever many players he has selected to be registered for this event. However he will not be allowed to switch out teammates at any given time. If the challengers are able to defeat Haseo up to the currently in arena fighters will be given the member address of each member of team Haseo! However if team Haseo is able to pull out a victory anyone who currently has the member addresses of the members of the team yet doesn't appear on team Haseo's member list will have the members of team Haseo immediately removed from their member roster along with those who thought not competing will let them be able to keep the players member addresses. This event begins at 4:50 pm and shall end when either team Haseo has fallen or the members of the opposing team have all fallen.

Chika read over the message over and over. This was his solution? This was his fool proof plan to get all of those players to leave them alone? This was complete and total CRAP! Chika slammed her hand on the desk in a combined fit of anger and sorrow

"Ryou what the hell is wrong with you?" she asked no one in particular. "How will this solve anything? If you lose you'll be forced to work for all other those people! I know you defeated 100 pkers all by yourself but…" she paused as she whipped a tear "but even this is too much for you. And even if it says that you may be leading the team doesn't mean you'll have a team. I know you all too well. You'd never risk taking away the time your friends enjoy in 'The World' on a small chance."

"You'd got out there by yourself before you ever let that happen…" she paused again "don't you know you're risking a lot? You happiness, your free time, your will, and…me." She whipped away her streams of tears before she stole a glance at the clock. It was 4:40; she had ten minutes before the even started to somehow stop him.

She pulled out her phone and first called her mother. After a few rings she picked up. "Hello mom I need a favor to ask you"

"Sure sweetie you can ask whatever you want. I hope you aren't mad t us for not telling you we were going out before you made it home" her mother replied in a cheery voice. Chika could hear the chatter of people in the background.

"No I'm perfectly fine about you leaving." Lie. "I was invited over to my friends house, she wanted me to help her study because she having some trouble with a test." Another lie.

"Sweetie who do you think you got your brains from? I already know that you were with a boy earlier." Her mom said in a still cheery voice.

Her eyes snapped open "How did you…" she tried to stop herself but it was too late.

Her mom gave a triumphant laugh "two thing darling. Both I achieved at the same time. One was when you answered your phone earlier you sounded as if I had just ruined a special moment. Plus after that I heard a boy sounding surprised that I had called." Chika wrote a mental note to herself to beat Ryou over the head. "Now why don't you tell me a little about your lover?"

Chika gave a little groan when her mom said lover. "His names Ryou Misaki and he's 17 and goes to the same school."

"Okay now we're getting somewhere. What are you planning to do when you get over there?"

"He needs my support in 'that' game. He's about to have a really big match in this tournament and he wants me to be there for him." She answered truthfully

"So how important is he to you that you need to go to his home for this game when you can easily watch from your home computer?" Chika honestly didn't know how to answer that question. She had never really thought about it, but some how she knew what to say.

"Well it's kind of like, you know how when you're with someone you care about your chest feels tight but it's not like it feels bad it's like a feeling of security. It's like knowing that someone will be there for you, someone who will listen to you and someone to care for you no matter what. I'm not saying that's he's perfect and I know there may be problems but I know we'll be fine because…because I love him. And no matter how bad thing would get I know that we'd both try to fix it." She was pretty sure that if cell phones had cords she'd probably been twirling her finger around it at this very moment.

Chika waited for her mothers reply. "Fine you can go."

"Really?" Chika felt she was dreaming.

"Yes you can go and even stay" she had to hold her phone away from her ear when she heard her daughters cheering. "But remember in all seriousness. You shouldn't rush into thing just because you love someone okay?"

"Yeah…and thanks mom." Chika gave a little smile.

"Don't thank me just yet! I want to meet the guy who stole my precious daughter's heart!" Her mom then laughed an almost evil laugh.

"Mom?!" Chika then swiftly ended the conversation with her mother before glancing at the clock. It read 4:48! "I spent too much time on the phone with my mom!" She punched in another set another set of numbers "come on pick up, pick up, pick up." She finally heard the person respond. "Hello Ryou!"

He sounded slightly surprised "Hey Chika I'm sorry but-"

"Shut up! No use explaining I already know about the event. Listen I don't care what you say, how much you plead, how much you whine, I'm going to help you and I'm coming over!" She then hung up the phone not giving him a chance to respond.

On the other end Ryou stared at his phone before he chuckled. "Like I could stop you anyway," Ryou placed on his FMD taking the form of his alter self, Haseo. He stood arms crossed in the center of the arena, he'd come prepared with his best armor, other self, and accessory item, shadow. The yells of the crowd in the stands and all over the Lumina Cloth sever echoed through his mind. He noticed several familiar faces scattered throughout the crowd such as Silabus and Gaspard.

"Hello fight fans!" A voice echoed above the crowd. "We have a special treat for you for you today! The first ever mass player melee! Hosted by me, yours truly, the MCPC!" (At least I think it's a PC. I mean it has to be to know exactly what happened in the fight.)

The crowds chants grew louder "Players from all over have signed up for this event! They have hardened themselves over this past week and now they are here to claim there prize, a battle with the legendary arena emperor and the former pkk known as the terror of death, Haseo! They'll be competing for a chance at his and those who are apart of his team member addresses! But you didn't come here to hear me talk, you're here to watch the carnage of many hungry lions rip apart each other for their prize! So lets welcome our first entrants!"

Three twin blades warped into the arena blades at ready. As soon as they warped in Haseo began forming his plan to deal with them as quickly as possible. "Now lets welcome the members of team Haseo!" The announcer shouted, but no one warped in. "What's this? Where's the rest of team Haseo?" Whispering spread throughout the crowd.

"They'll be here!" The voices within the crowd silenced from the roar of one voice. The voice belonged to Haseo. "They may be a little late but they'll be here. I don't really see a problem. Either way you just have to wipe out my entire team. If you wait until the rest of the team show up it'll just be more of a hassle." He smirked smugly at the crowd.

The crowd turned into an uproar once again. "You heard it, straight from the emperor's mouth! He's as ready to get the match as we all are. So with out further adieu, let the carnage begin!" The MCPC shouted signaling the start of the match!

The three twin blades began to circle around Haseo as he pulled out weapon, the scythe known as 'shadowy death'. He pulled back on his weapon readying for an attack. He heard the sound signaling the activation of a skill trigger. But the sound rang out three times meaning they all were coming in for the kill at once!

Haseo smirked as he swung his scythe in a circular motion creating a ring of energy round him. The ring stopping his attackers in their tracks. He swung twice more hitting all of his opponents before winding up once more and releasing firing the blue ring once more but this time sending it outward blowing his opponents away. It was now time for him to actuate a skill trigger of his own. He dashed at his adversaries scythe still in hand. "Reaper's dance!" Haseo called out as he swung not once but twice cutting into his foes before he thrust the tip of his scythe into the ground calling up claws of darkness that pierced all of those around him. He leaned forward on his weapon before flipping upward causing the claws to shoot in every direction pushing away his foes and slamming them into the wall of the arena.

The player's bodies glowed before fading into a ghost like figure showing that they had been defeated. They logged out but in their place were three new characters, a blade brandelier, a broadswordman and a harvest cleric. Haseo sighed as he switched his weapons to his twin blades and lunge forward. His target was of coarse the harvest cleric so he could make sure they couldn't heal and drag out the fight. But his attempt was thwarted as the blade brandelier jumped in his way to attack, but Haseo stopped their attack with his blades.

Little did he know this was exactly what they wanted. The broadswordsman circled around ready to attack him from behind. Haseo was about to turn to take on the broadswordsman but stopped when he heard the words 'Lei Zas'. They were the words to a spell. They had cornered him. If he turned to take on the close enemies he'd be blasted by the spell. Dodge the spell and be bombarded by both the blade users or worse case scenario take all three. He was screwed. Well if he was a normal player he would be, for he could employ a trick no other player could, the dash! His character suddenly shifted to the side narrowly dodging the spell and moved once more putting himself just out of the range for an attack by the two blade users.

He turned to prepare his counter attack but stopped dead when he saw the broadswordsman fade into a ghost before logging out. What had happened? Whispers spread throughout the crowd trying to figure out what happened when a voice rang out above them "oh ho ho, seems like everyone's confused about what just happened." It was the voice of the announcer "well lets go to the instant replay!" On the giant screen that floated next to the arena battle field it showed the exact moment when Haseo jumped out of the way of the attack. Everyone gasped at what happened next, the broadswordsman that came up behind Haseo took the full brunt of the spell!

"I'm sure you're all wondering how is this possible. Well it's simple this is the mass PLAYER melee. There are no official teams other than team Haseo. So that means if the players fighting them aren't careful they may have a little trouble with friendly fire. But healing spells will still work on the target of your choice" Haseo turned back to his foes once again smirking. The falling broadswordman had been replaced by another. He charged back in now knowing that he had a little handicap on his side.

Haseo had been battling for a long time. Nearing 30 minutes. He had easily taken down about 85 players already and yet it still showed that they were no where near out of players and had switched through his main weapons countless times. But even worse there was still no sign of the person(s) meant to battle at his side. He had just taken out three other characters and now he had to deal with two harvest clerics and a shadow warlock. Normally this would be easy, but Haseo was alone. He was focusing mainly on defense now because they all seemed to fire off their spells at the same time so even if he managed to get out of the way of one he had to face another. He hadn't even gotten a single attack in! At the rate this was going they were going to slowly chip away at his heath until he died, he wasn't even sure if his equipments restoration power would be enough to save him. All he could do was wait for an opening…if one came that is.

He hear the sound of something slamming. But this sound wasn't one that was familiar to him in "the world" this sound was one that was common to the real world. It was the sound of a door closing. He muted his mic so the in game player couldn't hear him. "Took you long enough" he said with a slight chuckle. It could only be once person, Chika.

"I would have been here sooner if I had a key! I had to spend like ten minutes looking for the spare key you keep outside!" Chika sounded absolutely livid but seemed to calm down when as she walked over to Ryo, she tilted his head backwards and lightly touched her lips to his.

"Chika you can't do that out of the blue! I could have died just then!"

"Like that you'd die that easily. Plus…" she leaned close to him so that their cheeks were touching. She used one of her hand to lift his FMD and the other to point at his computer screen which showed the image of the arena fight third person "I can see that you're perfectly fine" she then kissed him on the cheek.

Ryou stared back at her "you're more affectionate today then usual."

"Am I? Well I guess I'm just really happy today"

"Who are you and what have you done with my empress?"

"Shut up! Anyway do you have another computer or did I come all the way here for nothing?"

"There's a laptop under my bed and hurry up I'm in a tight spot here!"

"Well maybe that'll teach you for making decision without me!" she shouted as she looked under his bed for the item she sought. When she found it she pulled it out along with other items needed for playing "the world". "Whoa this is one dinosaur of an FMD!" Chika said giggling to herself. The FMD was much bigger than the current ones and were all gray. (The original FMD's. See .hack//Sign or legend of the twilight bracelet)

"Hey it's just a spare I found laying around the house. I rarely use it anyway. Now hurry up!"

"I am, I am" she said putting on the FMD "I'm almost there. Just give me another minute or two."

Turning back to his match Haseo was still in a tight situation seeing that's the three were still firing off spells. But suddenly they stopped, they were out of TP! Haseo took this chance and charged forth at a selected and quickly dealt away with them. Activating a skill trigger so he could quickly zoom across the arena to dispatch the second. He turned to finish off the third when a figure suddenly flew past his side and headed towards the enemy and cut them down.

"What just happened?" the announcer shouted over the gasping crowd.

The figure stood up from it's battle position and flicked read its hair. "That makes this the second time I've saved you doesn't Haseo?" The figure then turned to the crowd "Ex-demon palace empress has entered the arena as a member of team Haseo!"

"What a turn of events. It seems that a member of team Haseo has finally entered the arena to aid Haseo. His teammate is none other than Alkaid who was once a palace emperor like Haseo." The announcer explained. "And in her chance to return to her thrown was stopped by Haseo, but it seems the bad blood between them was washed away when they joined forces in the holy palace tournament."

The crowed began shouting how it was unfair for her to enter this late in the game and the fact that she had been a palace emperor made the battle unfair. But their taunts went ignored as Alkaid placed her hands on her hips and scoffed "geez you'd think that they all of a sudden lost all chances of winning now that there's two of us. But then again it is me!" she then let out huge laugh that was cut short when the sound of a gun being fire rang out.

She looked towards Haseo to see that he had one of his dual guns pointed at her. But that couldn't be right, he couldn't have actually tried to shoot her. She turned around just in time to see the ghostly silhouette of a player logging out. "Now this makes two times I've saved you." Haseo said with a smile on his face.

Alkaid drew her twin blades and pointed one at Haseo. "We'll talk about this later." She then turned away from him at the ready for battle but was surprised to see him stand right next to her.

"I told you already, I'm not letting you go again. So I want you to stay at my side and we'll be just fine." He turned and smirked at her, making her blush. He (Ryou) felt something hit him in the back of the head.

"Yo Haseo!" a new voice said a three more characters logged into the arena there were two female blade brandeliers and one steam gunner dressed in mainly yellow.

"Kuhn what the hell?" Haseo asked one eyebrow arched.

"I know, I know this looks bad" he said as he put his hands up "but you see the girls asked me to come help them out because since I'm friends with you I should know your weaknesses. And you know how it is when the girls you like ask you to do something. You just can't say no, so no hard feelings?"

"Well…" Haseo made a glance at Alkaid "I understand exactly what you mean. Plus I always wanted to know who was the best gunner between the two of us."

"Thanks man I owe you one" Kuhn then pulled out his single gun flipping it in the air before catching it, obviously showing off. "But that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you, let's go girls!"

The two female blade brandeliers moved in for their attack. There plan was thwarted when Alkaid jumped in the way stopping one as Haseo volleyed the other into the air before turning to shoot the other into the air as Alkaid linked it in with her ghost falcon technique.

"Dust bullet" Kuhn cried out over commotion as he fired three shots into the sky.

Haseo knew exactly what was about to happen. He grabbed onto Alkaid and swiftly jumped out of the way just dodging the rain of bullets. He turned facing Kuhn and activates a skill trigger "Justice!" Haseo rapidly slashed at Kuhn with the blades of his guns before unleashing a hailstorm of bullets before winding back for one final shot. "Double trigger: Judgment!" Haseo activated his follow up trigger ability as he shot with his left, then right before pulling back and for a combo shot of the two sending him flying.

Kuhn quickly readied himself as the girls rushed to his side. "I'm fine ladies. You really got me with that one Haseo but…Thunder spark!" Kuhn fired off another one of his steam gunner abilities. He wasn't aiming for Haseo. His target Alkaid.

The attack hit her head on without a moments notice, Haseo couldn't do anything. He wanted to see if she was okay but seeing how she got back up she had to be fine "you jerk I thought you were going to protect me!"

"Alkaid this is no time for arguing, we have to change our plan. You just pick a target and I'll take care of Kuhn!" They both chose their targets and attacked. Haseo moved in close and used the blade of one of his guns to attack Kuhn who blocked it only to receive a shot to the face from the other. Haseo turned to see that as Alkaid dealt with one of the girls the other tried to sneak in an attack. Haseo fired off two shots to knock her into the air before he fired multiple shots hitting every player that wasn't a member of his team.

Kuhn tried to take this opportunity to fire a skill trigger but whenever he tried Haseo would dash out of the way of his target and close the gap for a close range shot. And if he tried to target Alkaid, Haseo would purposely jump in the cursors way to change the target to himself. Kuhn clicked his tongue "this is getting me no where!" he said as he had a momentary cease fire. Haseo moved in for a hopeful kill but was blasted away.

Haseo performed a flip in the air and fired a few round back at him as he flew across the arena. He kicked off the wall, landing next to Alkaid. Switching his weapon to his twin blades he selected one of the female blade brandeliers as his target and slashed right through them. He turned around to see that Alkaid had done the same. They slashed through their targets again before changing their targets and attacked the one the other had just attacked turning the players into ghost that logged out.

"It's over Kuhn" Haseo said as he switched back to his dual pistols. He stood next to Alkaid ready to attack of defend.

Kuhn gritted his teeth and snarled at the two as he glared back at them. He glare softened as he stared at them and suddenly began laughing. "I get it now." Haseo and Alkaid looked kind of off guard. "okay you got me, you win. Just hurry up and finish me."

The two just stared at each other then back at Kuhn. But since they weren't the kind of people to pass up a free hit they both ran forth activating a skill trigger. "Ghost falcon!" they shouted in unison as the combo'd Kuhn with the same move.

"I said finish me, not perform over kill!" were Kuhn's last word before he logged out.

Haseo gave a light chuckle "thanks Kuhn" he said the last part under his breath.

Alkaid suddenly smacked him "pay attention! I don't know about you but I hate losing." She said as she pointed to the new shipment of fighters.

In the arena stands a pink haired tribal grappler stood watching over the fight. "It seems like you weren't much help."

"I'm sorry Pi" said the steam gunner dressed in all yellow. "but I highly doubt anyone can stop those two."

"Are you implying that they are somehow cheating?" Pi said as she adjusted her glasses.

"Not at all. Look closely at they way their fighting." Kuhn said as he pointed towards the arena. "Look ho their fighting. Haseo isn't mainly focusing on one enemy as usual. Notice how every now and then he momentarily switches his target to one of the enemies targeting Alkaid. Plus he's jumped in the way of most attacks coming her way." Kuhn explained. "He's giving her enough space so she can do as she wishes yet he isn't taking his eyes off her."

"So what does that have to do with anything?" Pi asked sounding annoyed.

"It means he loves her. It's like their a couple. He doesn't want to be too over protective and offend her by acting all macho and doing everything. But he still isn't letting her take on to much herself." Kuhn said tieing up all the loose ends.

"Wow, it seems you've really grown up Kuhn."

"I sure have" he shouted nearly at the top of his lungs. "So how about you become my 1000th girl!" he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. (this is a fact Kuhn has over 900 phone numbers that belongs to females stored in his phone. He currently has 998 and plans to make Pi number 1000)

"How about you go to hell?"

Time dwindled by and the fights carried on and on. The pair of Haseo and Alkaid had just finished off three more players. They waited for the next group to log in but nothing came. The waited, still nothing came. Then suddenly out of the blue there was a loud bang and as little pieces of confetti seemed to rain down from the sky "they've done it! The joint combination of Haseo and Alkaid has defeated all the players that have dared to face them." The MCPC announced over the crowd. "This is the true power of an emperor and empress working in unison." He followed up making the pair blush.

The pair smiled at each other "Um Alkaid you wanna…"

"log out? Yeah." The two were surrounded by blue ring of light as they moved from their online alters back into the form of their real selves.

Chika pulled off her FMD and flopped on the bed. Her breath was ragged and her clothes matted against her by her sweat. She was tired and didn't feel like moving. Her eyes drifted shut momentarily but snapped back open when she fel something lightly brush against her lips. "Ryou, what are you doing? You can't kiss me now I'm all sweaty!" she said trying to push him off.

"So what? I'm sweating and you don't here me complaining" he then kissed her lightly on the cheek before flopping onto the bed next to her and pulled her into a tight hug.

She would have insisted that he moved if she wasn't enjoying herself. He anger slowly faded but was replaced with questions. "…Hey Ryou"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I need you to promise me something."

"Sure what is it?"

"I need you to promise me that you'll be cool and really sweet no matter how demanding or needy I am!"

Ryou gave a slight chuckle "I'll make you happy."

"…'kay, I promise I'll make you happy too!" And with that she could soundly drift off to sleep in the arm of her charming prince that woke her up from her eternal sleep.

END…maybe…I don't know!

Me: it's finally over. Nearly 11 pages of writing with this chapter alone, but it's finally done!

Alkaid: what are you talking about we did all the work

Haseo: yeah we deserve most of the credit!

Me: shut it before I put you two in a lemon fic….Good. Well that's all he (yes I'm a guy. Obviously) wrote. Like I said before I might, MIGHT, do some bonus chapters….Maybe. Well thanks to all the fans who stuck by me this entire time!


	6. Rebirth

You asked and asked and asked so here it is, the first of the three bonus chapters to wrap up the .hack//G.U fic I did.

Chika: What, I thought we were done?

Ryou: yeah I thought I could finally rest

Me: No you can not rest! Now get back to work being all lovely dovey!

Rebirth

Haseo had reached the final level of Sigma: Forever, Eternal, Nothingness. The area was a few levels lower than his current one so it was nearly effortless to reach the bottom. There were reports of a pker hanging around the area picking off all who neared the got statue yet there wasn't a single report of the character ever taking his victims items. So as one of the greatest pkks known to date he was constantly pestered about taking on the enemy. At first he didn't feel like it was any of his business but the constant bickering finally got to him and decided to go.

As he neared the got statue he heard the screams of players. They had obviously just been pked. Haseo used a speed charm to get to the got statue as soon as possible. When he arrived he saw the light that indicated that someone had just logged out of the area. He knew the person didn't make it to the warp gate because the warp out was done in the center of the room. When the light cleared Haseo saw a green haired male pc smirking. The pc was dressed in all black with a purple stripe going down each arm and leg. A tattered cape hung loosely over his body along with red bandages around his head. Taking a look at the pc's weapons he noticed the pc was a twin blade…but for some reason the pc's weapons were attached to its wrist instead of how pc's usually held their weapons.

The green haired pc turned to Haseo "oh? There seems to be another one." The pc smirked at him. "How about you hand over that member address and I let you leave with your life?" He gave a slight laugh.

This pissed Haseo off that someone thought someone can bully him into giving them his member address, especially after that incident. He reached for his dual guns "Just who the hell do you think are?!" He lunged forward trying to drive the blade of the gun into the player.

But the player blocked it effortlessly and smiled as him and Haseo went into a stand off "You're just like me."

"I am nothing like you!" Haseo swung his second gun and pointed it at the face of the player and fired one shot.

The player leaned back dodging the shot before going into a back flip landing on top of the chest in front of the got statue. "We've both contacted the goddess and gained power that far surpasses the system." Haseo stared back at the character in amazement. How did this character know he met Aura? How did it know how he obtained the Xth form? "However there is one thing we both share in common, we are both the first child of Morgana."

'What the hell? How does he know about epitaphs? And what does he mean we are both the first child? Is he trying to say he's skeith' were the words running through Haseo's mind. The screens color suddenly inverted causing Haseo to look around in shock. "This only happens when AIDA and…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence when he saw the strange pc glow in a red light as a deafening roar echoed through his headphones. When the light dissipated and the noise quieted the player no longer stood before him. It was now replaced by a large stone like figure with an incomplete ring as its horn. In its hand it held a crystal red staff with a cross in the center. The monster resembled something he was too familiar with. The monster resembled the first form of skeith. "What the hell are you?!" Haseo shouted demandingly.

The figure didn't respond. It just raised the staff which disappeared only to reappear behind Haseo. It lifted him into the air as the figure pointed its hand at him. A burst of light erupted from its hand and pierced through Haseo. The cross faded and returned to the monsters hand as Haseo dropped to the ground. Haseo looked up as everything turned black to see that the player character was back and standing above him with a smile. "I am Sora," was all the player said before Haseo's vision turned into nothingness.

Ryou Misaki bolted up right in his bed with a small yell. His breathing heavy and his body dampened with sweat. He looked around to see that he was in his room and not logged into The World, or worse a hospital bed. He looked to hi side and noticed the absence of something in his bead "…she gone" he said in a saddened tone.

"Hey so you're finally up? Have a little nightmare did we?" said a girl with messy brown hair as she walked into his bedroom grinning. She wore nothing but a rather large shirt that looked like if she were to stretch she'd show off a little too much. On the shirt was picture of the band Asian Kung-fu generation.

"No it wasn't a nightmare" it was an obvious lie and he knew she caught him in but she chose not to say anything. "Besides that," he began as he looked away from the girl "why are you wearing that?"

"I told you last night, I really sweaty. I woke up during the middle of the night and I just had to take a shower." She smirked to herself when she saw him flinch at the word shower. "But if you want me to" she tugged at the edges of the shirt "I can take it off." She laughed when she saw a blush completely cover Ryou's face. "I'm kidding. Geez Ryou can't you take a joke?" She walked over to the bed, plopping down next to him and leaned in close to him. "But then again who could blame you?" There was a small hint of seductiveness in her voice.

Ryou gave into it as he wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in to kiss her when the ring of the door bell broke the mood springing the two out of the lover trance. "Oh crap, she's here too early! Ryou can you get the door I have to find some pants" she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before frantically searching through his drawers for the sought item.

"Who's here early?" Ryou asked he was ignored. "You can't just leave me like this" he sighed before getting out of bed. He walked to the door rubbing his neck "She really shouldn't break off a really heated kiss like that." He opened the door to find a woman on the other side. She was dressed in a light brown dress that contrasted her rather dark brown hair. She wore a huge smile on her face before she entered Ryou's home and began looking around. "Um…can I help you?"

The lady gave him a once over "hmm not bad. It seems she picked a looker. And considering the fact that that you two go to the same school you must be pretty smart."

Ryou was slightly caught off guard by the information she presented "how did you-"

The lady suddenly let out a gasp and rushed past Ryou. "Chika!" Ryou turned to see that the lady had just embraced Chika who was now wearing a pair of his pants. "So how was my little girl's first night at a boys?"

"Wait…little girl" Ryou questioned pointing to Chika before slowly moving his gaze to the older "Then that must mean that you're her"

"My mother" Chika said finishing his thought with an awkward smile.

"Oh um It's nice to meet you Mrs. Kuramoto" Ryou said bowing. "You have a very lovely daughter." He finished making Chika blush.

"Why thank you." Mrs. Kuramoto mused. "You know she takes after me, right."

Chika gave a nervous laugh "Mom you're embarrassing me."

"Come now Chika its fine to talk about such things with my possible future son-in-law." She said with a smile on her face yet seemed to be the only one in the room not wishing she took back those words. She clapped her hand together to break the eerie silence. "Now Chika if you don't mind I would like to talk to Ryou privately." She handed her daughter a bag and pushed her off in the direction of Ryou's room and closed the door before turning back to Ryou. "Now Mr. Misaki" she said her tone changing from the usual playful to one that sounded like an investigator. "I would like to ask you, what are your plans towards my daughter?"

Ryou flinched at the question. Had she really just asked that? He gave a nervous cough as he took a seat on the couch, Mrs. Kuramoto at across from him, "Um well nothing really. I really love your daughter and wish to spend the rest of my life with her and support her."

"I see. You do know that my daughter isn't that great of a cook because she tends to make instant ramen more then regular food."

"Yes she's told me. However with her dream of being able to travel all over Japan, I'm sure she'll pick up a few thing along the way." He replied with a smile.

Mrs. Kuramoto nodded with a smirk on her lips "So she's already shared her dreams with you, that's good. But I must ask you what is you current occupation?"

"I'm current working at a local grocer, why?" Ryou asked tilting his head.

"Just wondering, but how do you plan to support her with that kind of salary?" She asked as she crossed her arms. "I mean her love of book should take care of that."

"Oh this is just a temporary job. I plan to work along with my father later on in life. But if that doesn't work out I have a few connections to help me gain a job with a large company." He smirked back at the surprised woman.

"And just wear is your father?"

"He works for a company that causes him to travel a lot so he's rarely home."

"So that means…"

"Yes I basically live alone." As soon as he said that Ryou wished he could take it back.

"Oh really. She forgot to tell me that," Ryou did not like the look in her eyes. "Well here's the final question, how important is my daughter to you?"

Ryou was once again caught off guard by the woman's supposed random questions "Well I never really thought about" he replied looking off into the distance "well it's like this, you know that feeling you get when something happens to something happens to someone you care about and you wish you could change it no matter what? I would give up everything I had and even my life to make sure your daughter was alright. I've already lost her once and I don't plan to do it again." He balled his hand into a fist as they rested on his legs. "Last time I was too late. It was just a minute but in that single minute something I could have stopped happened and I had to watch her fade away in my arms." Mrs. Kuramto watched as Ryou began to shake and a small tear well up in his eyes. "I…I never want that to happen again!"

"Are you okay?" Mrs. Kuramoto asked sounding worried.

"I'll be fine. I was able to save her and that's all that matters." Ryou replayed the his words in his head again. 'Crap I think I just said a bit too much' he thought to himself.

A smirk spread across Mrs. Kuramoto's face "I see. So you're this Haseo I've heard about. First you steal my daughters heart in an online game and then in this world." Ryou looked back at her in astonishment. "What don't look at me like that, it was easy to figure out considering the fact that when she finally stopped playing and go to sleep she'd sigh and say your name and whenever she got an email from you she's be ecstatic and say how she had knew mail from you and laughed and giggled about some of the messages. She even got pissed off at a few."

Ryou gave a nervous chuckle at the mention of the e-mails. He silently prayed that she didn't read any of them. Especially the ones that were a little personal. "But I have to say the most memorable one was when she woke up in the hospital" Mrs. Kuramoto began but was interrupted when her daughter burst into the room. She was now dressed in a white button up shirt and a skirt that reached mid thigh.

"God if I'm in some sort of dream world, do not wake me up, ever!" Ryou said out loud but soon regretted it when Chika pinched his cheek.

"Mom can you not tell him that…It's kind of embarrassing."

"Aww what's the problem? It's a cute story." She explained and when she got no sign of protest she decided to continue. "Well like I was saying when she woke up from her coma the very first thing she did was say your name and how you were in trouble and she needed to help you." Ryou looked at Chika to see her blushing fiercely. "The doctors said not to let her but I decided to let her because she had that look in her eye that told me she would have found a way to do it even if I said no."

"…Chika" Ryou said in a low voice as he looked at the girl.

"Well that's enough stories for now." Chika said putting up a front to hide her emotions. "Can we go now mom?"

"Fine fine, it was nice meeting you Ryou." Mrs. Kuramoto said stood to leave and headed for the day.

"Well see you on Monday Ryou! And remember no staying up late playing game!" Chika said jokingly as she pushed her mother towards the door.

"Chika wait" Ryou said as he grasped her arm. He picked up the key she tossed on the table and placed in her hand. "You know, if you ever want to come visit."

Chika gave a slight giggle "thanks" she suddenly felt herself being taken into his arms as he pressed his lips to hers. When they broke Chika gave a gasp for air "I told you not to do that! Especially when my mom is right there!"

"So what she already knows. Plus it's your fault for leaving mid moment earlier! But I think that made up for it." Ryou said with a slight smirk.

Chika's face turned beet read before she gave a laugh. "Well I guess I helped to turn you into a real man huh? Well I gotta go" she then rushed out the house to join her snickering mom.

Ryou closed the door to his now silent home. The silence churned his thoughts until his dream resurfaced. He walked over to his computer and launched the world.

He slipped into the body of his character as he arrived in the city of Lumina Cloth. He quickly switched severs to Breg Epona and put in the key words of the area he dreamed about.

He made it effortlessly through the area just like in his dream but this time when he reached the got statue he didn't see anyone there. There was nothing but the usual chest. Feeling that the journey was pointless and that he should have something for his troubles he opened it. The message "You have obtained: Last Betrayal" appeared on the screen. They were twin blade weapons that were level 99. But his equipment list was full so he chose to discard them because they were weaker than his current equipment. The message "You have obtained: Last Betrayal" appeared on the screen. Haseo seemed confused. He entered the command to trash them again but the message appeared once more. "What the hell? I thought I threw these away?!" Haseo clicked to trash them once more but just like before, the message "You have obtained: Last Betrayal" appeared on the screen.

"Fine I get the hint." Haseo removed a random item from his inventory. The message "Equipped: Last Betrayal" flashed on the screen "Wh-what the-". Checking his inventory Haseo say that he had indeed now equipped the item. He tried to remove it but it reequipped themselve's. Just what kind of item were they? Haseo suddenly hear foot steps of other pc's coming. 'Time to have some fun' a voice said echoing in Haseo's mind.

The screen suddenly inverted as Haseo saw his character change into fractal code before the code morphed and reformed as something different from his usual character. When the transformation was over he looked just like the character in his dreams known as Sora. Haseo blacked out…

TBC

Freaky weapon yes? Well I know you don't really care but I chose the name Last Betrayal as the weapons name because it's the actual name of Sora's weapons! Well enough small talk, super awesome next episode guy take it away!

Announcer: Ryou awakens with no memory of what happened after obtaining the weapons. Checking his character he finds his character Haseo as it should be. Just who is this character Sora and why are those weapons clinging to him? It seems that they even seem to be warping his personality as they haunt Ryou with a past he can't even remember. Will his fiery love Chika be able to coax him through his problem or will he become engulfed by it. Next time on meeting you on the other side, Reminisce. See you in the next log in!


	7. Reminisce

I think I may have found a contradiction in the .hack story line. (SPOILER WARNING: skip straight to the story if you don't want a spoiler) They say that Ryou lost his memory of ever playing the world when he woke up from his coma, yet wasn't Sora in the episode of .hack//sign when the game characters met the ones from the show? Wouldn't that mean he still had his memory? Well whatever. (END SPOILER) Put on those FMDs and log into The World

Reminisce

Ryou grumbled as he sat up at his desk, lifting his FMD to rub his temples. He scanned the area "what the hell," he said sounding surprised "why am I in Breg Epona?" Haseo had somehow ended up back in the root town Breg Epona! He searched his memory for any clue of how he got back but all he could remember was that he obtained some weapons the he could discard or unequip and then suddenly nothing. "But in my dream that guy said he was Skeith and he even transformed into a monster that looked similar to an avatar. And I'm sure that I heard his voice when I got these weapons. Maybe Yata might know something, I should-" Haseo let out a sudden yawn.

Ryou pulled off his FMD, taking a look at the clock he saw that it was nearly midnight! "I somehow missed the entire day?! What a way to waste a Saturday" Ryou shouted angry to the fact that he had somehow let the day slip by and had no memory of it. He groggily stood from his computer as he shut it down and stumbled towards his bedroom before collapsing on the bed falling into an immediate sleep.

Images flashed through Ryou's mind as he slept. They were images of The World. But somehow everything seemed different. There wasn't a single animal like PC and even images of root towns he never heard of appeared. Not even Mac Anu seemed to be the same. Slowly a video began to play in his head it was hard to make out and didn't even seem to have sound. In front of him was someone who seemed to be of the lord partisan class. He wore an all red kimono and had a picture of what looked to be a sun tattooed on his chest. They appeared to be in a crumbling building yet neither of them made a move to escape. The spears man suddenly lunged at Ryou but before the blow landed Ryou put his arms up to block…On his wrist were the same weapons that he found earlier today!

It seemed that the two had been locked in battle. But why was Ryou seeing this? He had no memory of ever fighting this person or even playing R:1! The video continued to play in his head as the two continued to battle as they seemed to fly through the air as they avoided debris while trying to deliver the final blow. They both charged for the final blow but suddenly stopped as a large piece of debris landed in the middle of them preventing further combat. There was a minute where the two seemed to be exchanging words before Ryou turned to run.

This didn't make since to him at all as question upon question popped into his head. Laughter suddenly broke the silence. "Aww is the little baby confused?"

Ryou recognized the voice "Sora?! Where they hell are you? Why are you in my head?"

The voice laughed again "why? Because I belong here that's why. I told you me and you are the same."

"What do you mean the same? I don't even know who you are!"

"Oh?" the voice of Sora called sounding almost disappointed "well if you don't believe me then just turn around" he said the last part with an evil chuckle in his voice.

"What do you-" as Ryou turned around he came face to face with a mirror. "What the hell is this?" The mirror showed his reflection but only half his reflection was his. The other half belonged to that of Sora.

"See I told you, we are exactly the same" the Sora half gave an evil grin before the mirror suddenly shattered with hundred of glass pieces flying Ryou's direction.

Ryou literally leapt out of the bed before coming crashing down on the floor. However he had no time to think about pain as the dream came swimming back into his mind, he rushed off towards the bathroom to take a look at his reflection. He let out a sigh of relief, he was the same Ryou Misaki that he was yesterday and the day before. He felt a sudden vibration in his pants pocket that was accompanied by a catchy ring. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone "Hello this is Ryou."

"You sound overly happy this morning. Have any _sweet_ dreams last night?" the voice on the other end said.

"Ah good morning Chika," Ryou said as he had mixed thoughts on what she meant by 'sweet dreams'. He decided not to ask.

"Hey Ryou I was wondering if you'd like to go somewhere with me" Chika asked in a cheery voice.

"Sure where do wanna go, Rainbow Bridge?" Ryou asked remembering the email from when they were talking about if she ever came to Tokyo he'd take her to Rainbow Bridge.

"No, no where that special. I was thinking maybe just Breg Epona" she said the name of the location in a near solemn tone.

"Breg Epona…but we can meet there anytime" Ryou said sounding disappointed that she only wanted to meet in the game and not face to face. "Are you sure you don't want to go somewhere else?"

"Actually I do but…" Chika began before momentarily trailing off "my moms a complete blabber mouth and told my dad! So now he's basically watching my every move. I can't even walk to the bathroom without him trying to follow me." They both chuckled at her last statement.

"Well I'll be there. Just give me a few minutes." Ryou said as he hung up the phone.

"So who was that?" a voice said questioning the phone call. Ryou's head shot up to and looked at the mirror to see Sora standing at his side arms folded. He turned to his left only to see that nothing was there. Turning back to the mirror there was once again nothing.

"Now he's even outside of my dreams" Ryou said with labored breath. He splashed water on his face to clear his head before he went to his computer. He paused before putting on his FMD remembering what happened yesterday or rather not remembering. He took a deep breath before slipping the device over his eyes as he logged into the world.

Blue rings spiraled downwards as the player character Haseo materialized into the Breg Epona. Haseo looked over his character, "well at least I know I'm me." He said before he opened up the menu and checked his equipment; he saw twin blade weapons titled 'Last Betrayal'. "Damn it! So that incident yesterday really did happen."

"What happened yesterday?" A voice said accompanied by a face that was barely an inch from his.

Caught off guard Haseo took a step back, nearly falling over backwards. "Alkaid what the hell? Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Consider it returning the favor" the red haired girl replied with a smug grin while her hands rested on her hips. She took a look around the area to see that others were staring at them pointing as they whispered to fellow player. She lets out a small sigh, "Fight one a match against possibly half the users in this game together and suddenly everyone thinks you and I are a couple…well we can't say that's the _wrong_ idea can we?"

"Yeah and not to mention that video that went out before the match didn't really help much either." Haseo said as he scratched his head.

"Almost makes you want to give them something to talk about doesn't it?" Alkaid smirked evilly at him.

Haseo flinched at the look on her face. He didn't like it at all. "Alkaid what are you planning?" He took a step back.

She suddenly tugged on his arm as she looked downward "Haseo…" Her voice sounded absolutely heavenly.

"Um yeah" he replied barely able to form words.

"Don't you remember your promise to me?" She looked up at him with a look that rivaled the one that she gave him when he gave up his emperor title and agreed to help Sirius.

'Cute' was the only thought that made its way into his mind. "Um what promise?" He asked unable to concentrate on anything else other than her face.

"Remember you promised me that when we could be alone you'd take me for a ride on the back of your steam bike." (I believe she asked in an e-mail once)

Haseo looked around as he heard an increase in the whispering "I-I did?"

She wrapped her arms around one of his, a big smile on her face "Of course now let's go!" She said as she dragged him towards the chaos gate as she selected random area words and warped to the specified area, making sure to plant a kiss on Haseo's cheek before they were out of view.

They entered the area with the sound of Alkaid's laughing "Did you see the looks on everyone's faces?!" she asked when the warp was complete.

"Yeah a real riot" Haseo replied sounding annoyed. "And what kind of area words are these, crying, her, nothingness? The monsters are way below our level."

"Oh come on lighten up" she said in an indifferent attitude "we both know you enjoyed. And you can't say that I'm some crazy girl who likes to toy with boys hearts in online game" she said as she wagged a finger.

"I know, you're just a crazy girl who likes to play with my feelings." He countered with a triumphant grin.

"Hey?! What's that supposed to mean you idiot?!" she asked sounding frustrated as she leaned forward with her hands on her hips trying to threaten him.

He simply laughed it off. "It's nothing. Now do you want to go on that ride or not?" He asked as he called up the steam bike and hopped on, extending a hand to her. She just nodded and hopped on the back of the bike, wrapping her arms around his waist. The engine revved before they took off.

The ride consisted of taking a quick spin around the area, Haseo swerved between trees and obstacles which he received constant complaints from Alkaid that they were going to crash. But once she got into it she began pointing out random monsters that she insisted he run down, which he did just to see the horrified looks on their faces right before impact. The act in itself earned him a few laughs from Alakaid, especially the one instance where he launched the bike off a rock for an aerial take down of a monster (Which is awesome to do).

But soon they ran out of targets to take down so the ride came to an end at the entrance of the beast temple. "You really have to let me drive that thing some time" Alkaid insisted as she stretched.

"Guild masters only" he said denying her what she wished.

"Oh come on that's not fair!" She whined "I'm not even in a guild anymore and 'somebody' had to go and defeat every palace emperor which nearly disbanded icolo."

"Did I do that?" Haseo asked giving a nervous laugh.

"You bet your ass it was!" She said sounding slightly annoyed. She let out a deep sigh "But for the real reason I asked you out here. There's a rumor going around that a really powerful pker is taking down people who are in fields with 'betrayed' or 'nothingness' in the keywords. Weird think is right before he pks them he ask for their member address. If they say yes they get to walk away but the ones that say no aren't so lucky."

Haseo looked slightly irritated "so you dragged me out here so I can stop this guy?"

She stuck out her term and gave herself a little knock to the head (you've seen this before. I just can't describe it right). "Well kinda."

"Fine I'll do it. But don't you think we should have saw-" The sound of a bell tolling interrupted Haseo's train of thought. The bell soon accompanied by the a deafening roar. "That's the-aaaaaaah!" he let out a scream mid-sentence as he fell to the ground clutching his head.

"Haseo?! Haseo, what's wrong?" Alkaid said shouting over the noise.

"Alkaid get out of here! Get away from me!"

She ignored his cry as she dropped to his side and clutched him tightly in her arms. "Why? What's wrong?"

The roar over the speaker suddenly stopped and Haseo looked up at her. "Haseo's not in right now" a voice completely different from the Haseo she knew echoed from his character.

Alkaid jumped back just in time to avoid a swing the character took at her. "Who are you and what have you done with Haseo?"

"I told you he's gone. And why do you care…" the character in charge of Haseo's body licked the blade that extended from his wrist. "Are you a friend of his? If so then please give me your user address.

"Like hell!" Alkaid replied having flashbacks of their recent situation.

The characters shoulders slumped, "Oh that's…to bad" there last two words were layered with malice as the character charged forward. But Alkaid leapt to the side at the last moment. Sensing danger she attempted to make a run for it. But her plan was thrawted as the player spun on his heel of his foot and drove the blade into the wall blocking her escape route. "He raised his other hand and pointed the blade directly at her face "last chance" the character smirked.

Alkaid felt helpless. She wanted to fight back but she couldn't. If she went for her weapons she's be killed. And even she did get them out how was she supposed to fight back when the mysterious person was using the face of the boy she cared for? She began to mutter the words "help me" over and over again.

"Asking for help won't save you now" the character pulled back his arm preparing to strike.

"HELP ME RYOU!" The scream escaped her lips right before the blade pierced into her. She waited for the attack…but it never came.

"That name…why do you know that name?" the character voice asked in a shaky tone. Alkaid stared back confused as the character began to jerk back and forth. "Shut up! Shut up! Get out of my head!" The voice repeated over and over. "Alkaid run! I don't know how much longer I can hold him!" The true voice of Haseo called out to her.

"Haseo what's going-" She asked wanting an answer.

"No time to explain! Just go hurry I-" Haseo's voice was suddenly cut off by a high pitched laugh. "I guess I have no choice. I'll have to kill the girl." Haseo's character became covered in red lines. "Alkaid you idiot, get out of here before he actually kills you!"

"I won't," Was her response.

"Stop with the trying to be strong crap and get out of here" Haseo called as he dropped to one knee.

She pulled him into a tight hug again "No! You said…you said you'd be there for me. Now it's my chance to be there for you!"

"You idiot!" Were Haseo's last words before a giant explosion went off. When the light finally faded from the screen Haseo expected to find Alkaid lying in his arms lifeless again. But this time he saw her smiling back at him.

"Aww now isn't this touching?" A voice called at their side.

They both turned to see a PC with a bandaged head dressed in a cape. "Sora!" Haseo said shouting out the culprits name.

"Ahh good to see you remember my name." Sora said waving.

"You're the voice from earlier!" Alkaid pointed out.

"Yes I am. And you're the girl that this boy desperately didn't want me to kill. It seems from that he was able to drive me out and allow me to reclaim my old body. I should really thank you but…" The PC lunged forward and swiped with arm. "you wouldn't give me those user ID." The characters of Haseo and Alkaid turned to ghost before warping out.

The two warped back in to breg epona and instantly collapsed. "Haseo, who was that guy? He was able to take us both down in one move. Haseo?" Alakid turned to see that he wasn't listening for he was selecting something on the chaos gate. Blue rings surrounded them both and they were warped elsewhere.

When the warp was done they appeared to be in a rundown city. Strange NPC's running about. "…This is the net slums" Alkaid voiced as she recognized the area from being brought here on several occasions. However she was ignored as Haseo had already taken off. "Hey wait up" she shouted as she ran after him. When they finally stopped running she found them both to be in a huge control room. A man dressed in a robe stood in the center of the room apparently working on the center console, a pig tailed tribal grappler stood next to him. "What is this place?" she wondered as she had not been brought here before.

"Haseo you know bringing outsiders here is forbidden!" The female tribal grappler said adjusting her glasses.

"I don't have time for your garbage old hag!" Haseo shouted shocking both female in the room.

The tribal grappler seemed furious "Old hag?! Who do you think you-"

"That's enough Pi." The robed man said waving her off. "I'm sure Haseo has reason for bringing her here. And from what Kuhn has told me…the two are what you call an item."

"Master Yata?" the women known as Pi stared.

Alkaid flinched "An i-item?"

"Stop with the jokes. This is important!" Haseo shouted ignoring his words. "Yata you played R:1 didn't you?"

"Yes I did. Why is this so important?" Yata raised an eyebrow.

"Did you know of a green haired pker that wore a cape?"

Yata searched his memory "…I'm sorry but I have no memory of such a player."

"Dammit! I'll find you one day Sora!"

"Wait, did you just say Sora" both Pi and Yata shouted in unison.

"Yeah why?" It was Haseo's turn to raise a brow.

"Pi, search any of the character Sora! You might even have to check the record of _that_ project." Yata gave the command which the tribal grappler obeyed as she went to work on the console in the center of the room. Screens lined with data appeared throughout the room.

"Haseo, what is she doing?" Alkaid questioned wide eyed.

"Let's just say I have friends that can get their hands on things most people can't" He answered not giving her a fully truthful answer.

"That sound like they're hackers! You're friends with hackers? And now I'm an accomplice!" Alkaid said freaking out.

Haseo grabbed Alkaid by the shoulders and lightly kissed her to bring her down to earth. "Calm down. It's nothing like that. They're just resourceful." Alkaid smiled back at him and nodded back an okay.

The sound of someone clearing their throat echoed throughout the room, "as much as I would hate to break up a lovely moment, but I found what I was looking for" Pi explained.

"Sorry" the pair said blushing.

"It seems that this Sora character did indeed play R:1" Pi said beginning to read off the data. It also seems that he had a small relation to the second network crash when the first network crash happened. What's this…" Pi paused as she found an extremely interesting piece of information. "It seems that Sora was one of _those_ users like us." She used the word those for the secrecy of what it was didn't use the correct term in front of Alkaid.

However Haseo was a little taken a back. "He was an epitaph user? But how?

"No one really knows" Yata answered. "Somehow he became possessed by one of the phases and that's all anyone really knows. Later when CCcorp. began to design the epitaphs they wanted to ask Sora if he wanted to join he was no longer playing the world."

Haseo took a minute to absorb the data "is that all you have? Not even a name of the player?"

"I'm looking but so far…wait I think I found it. The name of the player Sora was…oh my god." Pi paused over what she just read.

"What is it? Tell me!" Haseo grew irritated that she wouldn't tell him.

Pi had a worried look on her face as she took a deep breath "the player behind Sora was a 10 year old boy named…"

"Spit it out already!"

"…His name was Ryou Misaki." Pi said finally getting it out.

TBC

Yay another part finished! Hopefully this will keep the fans entertained while I escape. On a side not I found out something interesting. To help me explain. Let us bring in Sync from Tales of the Abyss

Sync: why the hell am I here? I'm not even in this game!

Me: you'll see. Now lets bring in alkaid!

Alkaid: Geez can't you give a girl a break?

Me: fine fine. But I need the both of you to read this cue card

Both: Why the hell would we do that…wait

Me: strangely that's what the card says.

Both: you sound just like me!

ME: that's right two of my favorite characters are voiced by the same person, Erin Fitzgerald. Makes me feel kind of weird when I think about Alkaid then it's just like WHAM Sync comes out of nowhere. Well enough talk! Next episode guy go!

Announcer: This is it folks, the final log in! Ryou has learned of his dark past as the pker known as Sora. Maybe being a pkk was him atoning for his sins or does he truly not remember. Well one thing can be certain Haseo and Sora will have to battle it out to determine the stronger persona. Who will win and gain control over Ryou!

Ryou: Come on I'm right here! Skeith!...Skeith! Why won't my epitaph comeout?!

Announcer: tune in next time as we'll be placing on our FMD's one more time


	8. Redemption

Oh yeah, final chapter baby! Ah it's been a long road but I'm finally going to finish this thing. We still need a .hack//G.U category in the games section; I mean seriously who really looks in the .hack//Sign section? But I digress, I'd like to thank all of you who've stuck by me since the prologue AKA the chapter known as good-bye Alkaid…I should really change that to prologue…I'll probably make it sound cool by saying prelude though, ha-ha! Don't worry I plan to do an epilogue, which I'm going to name epitaph; I just don't know what to do for it! Hmm maybe I'll figure it out between now and the end of this chapter. Enough babbling, it's time to put on those FMD's and log into the world!

Redemption

"What the hell do you mean Sora's player has the same name as I do?" Haseo shouted sounding as if he was about to snap.

"I think that goes with out saying" Pi responded with crossed arms. "What I'm saying is that YOU Haseo are the player behind Sora!"

A brow twitched on his face "listen here you old hag, I've never played with any other than this one! So why don't you and your stupid idea shut up!"

"Haseo," a voice shouted at his side.

"What?!" He turned to face the source of the voice only to receive a slap to the face.

"You need to calm down" The red haired team mate of his said with a hand on her hips.

Haseo stared back at Alkaid mainly awe struck that she slapped him as he collected his thought. He let out a deep sigh "I'm sorry," he apologized, to who was unknown. "I think I may have needed that."

"I only did it to make you come to your senses," she let out a sigh of her own "how can you be my knight in shining armor if you lash out at the people trying to help you." She gave him one of her most sincere looks. "I care about you Ryou" she said using his real name as she placed her head on his chest.

He gave her a light hug in return "I'm sorry Chika…I'll work on that" he replied using her name in turn.

A cough came to break the silence and immediately the pair pushed away from each other, both their face red in this world and in the real one. "It's good to know that there's someone out there that can make the kid apologize." Pi said rubbing her forehead.

"I wasn't apologizing to you old lady" Haseo said under his breath.

Pi chose to ignore his remark…for now anyway. "Well apparently from this file Sora was the first ever recorded epitaph user. But when the real epitaph project used to create all the current ones he was no where to be found."

"Does it say how he obtained his epitaph?" Haseo questioned.

"Just give me a minute" the tribal grappler responded as she began searching through all the data. "It doesn't say…but strangely here it says that his user hours seemed to have peeked after a certain point."

"Pi read that line back one more time" the voice of Yata called catching everyone by surprise. They had honestly forgotten about him.

"You mean this part about his hour increasing, what does that have to do with anything?" She raised a brow.

Yata stroked his chin "back in the days of R:1 there were records of players whose hours suddenly increased for unexplained reasons. Yet each time research was done to find out why these players suddenly began playing so much the answer always came back the same…" he paused as an eerie silence filled the room as they waited for him. "They all were reported to be hospitalized for being comatose." A wave of shock spread through out the room.

"So what you're saying I could have been one of those victims? I'd think I'd remember something like that!" Haseo protested.

"Not necessarily" was all Yata said. "There have been some cases where some players awoke from the world with no memory of ever playing The World at all. Think back Haseo, was there ever a time you woke up in a hospital yet don't know the reason why?!" Yata's voice echoed throughout the room.

"I d-don't know…" Haseo took a step back. He searched through his memories for the one memory he was looking for. Something clicked inside his brain as a single memory floated to the surface. He remembered waking up in a hospital and his mom hugging him. He could here cheers from neighboring rooms but he didn't know why. Short after he was asked questions, yet couldn't answer a single one and then something about his parents saying its best not to tell him.

Haseo gritted his teeth. "…So that's what they meant" he said under his breath.

"So do you remember" Yata asked with an all knowing smirk on his face. "But how he obtained an epitaph is mystery itself. Maybe he could have once been data drained by skeith and once skeith fell Sora's personality could have taken over…but that's just speculation." It was now Yata's turn to rub his forehead.

"But a better question is how and why a player from R:1 suddenly show up now?" Pi asked hoping for an answer.

"I can answer that" Haseo called "It a few days ago. I had this weird dream where I met Sora in and…data drained by him."

"So you were having a nightmare!" Alkaid suddenly interrupted. "Haha the emperors of emperors had a nightmare." She snickered at the thought. "The pkk who even supposedly death fears is afraid of nothing but a dream!" She was now just flat out laughing as she clutched her stomach, Pi and even Yata gave a small snicker.

Now irritated Haseo switched to whisper mode and whispered something to Alkaid. The girl in question instantly stopped laughing. (Bwahaha I'm not telling you what he said. But I'll leave some clues here and there) "Now like I was saying, when I woke up and visited the area I didn't find anything other than these strange weapons."

"And these weapons were called?" Pi asked with a raised brow.

"Hold on" he responded as he paused to open his inventory. "What the hell, they're gone!"

"Interesting" Yata suddenly said "I think I know what happened. Somehow your memories of your past resurfaced for an unknown reason and told you to go to an area. In that are you found a pair of weapons, correct?" Haseo nodded in response. "Then what?"

"…I don't remember" the adept rogue averted his gaze.

"I see…" the Mercado dancer stopped to ponder to himself. "You may go now. I have preparations I must make. I'll contact you when I'm ready." He then logged out, followed by Pi and Haseo, which left one Alkaid with a lot of questions in her head.

Ryou Misaki sat in class staring out of a window, forgotten was the world around him. He heaved a sigh and just continued staring. In the distance a voice made an incoherent sound, he just kept staring. He felt something fatherly light touch his cheek, the sudden sensation causing him to jump. He turned to literally come face to face with one Chika Kuramoto who then lightly kissed him on the lips before smirking.

"Chika what the hell? You can't kiss me in school what if the teach-" (apparently dating is frowned upon in Japanese schools) she suddenly placed a finger to his lips before turning his head to look around the classroom. "Hey where did everyone else go?"

Chika placed a hand on her hips "They've gone home. You've been day dreaming since the teacher started his lecture. Honestly what will it look to everyone else if they see you slacking when your girlfriend is making A's."

Ryou's eyes snapped open "What?! I was supposed to be taking notes!" He shouted ignoring her remark. "We have a big test coming and I need to…study" his words suddenly began to slow down as he reached the end. He turned to Chika "wait did you just say you were my girlfriend?" He asked catching that this was the first time either of them had referred to themselves as girlfriend and boyfriend. (Totally did that on purpose…I think I did anyway)

"What, no I didn't!" Chika retorted with a blush on her face as she caught her mistake.

"Yes you did, that why you're blushing" he pointed an accusing finger at her.

"No it's not! Plus it's not like it matters. It's not like we aren't in the first place!"

"Ah so you admit that you said it." Ryou smirked in victory.

"No…I…Arggg!! I'm leaving" Chika became frustrated before turning to storm out of the classroom. "And I was planning to let you borrow my notes too!" A sudden tug to her arm made her spin around and crash into something hard. Looking up she say Ryou's face about an inch or two from hers.

"But you're so cute you're mad" was all he said.

Chika's eyes grew wide at those words. For every time he spoke the something really good/bad happened. She tried to push him away but he just pulled tighter. She stared back at him with slight since of expectation yet still trying to escape. "Ryou let go!" He inched forward. "What about the teacher?" He steadily moved closer. "Don't you dare or I'll…I'll…I'll" she tried to form her words into a threat but failed and ended up in a very deep kiss with Ryou.

It was of those kisses that he planted on her every time she got mad at him. And it always worked seeing as how each time it happened seeing as how each time she clung to him as if begging for it not end and after it was over she'd stare back up at him with a sense of wanting in her eyes like she did now. Yet even though she enjoyed it the result was always the same… "That's so unfair Ryou!" she said before playfully smacking him before she turned to walk away. "Come one we've got work to do!" Ryou happily followed knowing that she wasn't 'truly' mad at him.

Several minutes later they arrived to Ryou's house like they did everyday after school but this time Chika took the pleasure of opening the door with her key. It gave her a sense that the house was 'theirs'. They wandered into the living room, Ryou took a seat at his computer while Chika searched for his laptop and moved it into the living room. They both clicked on the icon labeled "The world". It wasn't long before Chika began to complain about Ryou's old pair of FMD's, "seriously why do you even still use these?"

"I told you they're just a spare set" I don't really use them.

"Good thing I brought my own today. The stupid glare from those things are a pain. I'll probably need glasses because of that." She sighed to herself before she put on her own FMD.

"Red." Ryou said out of the blue.

Chika flinched, nearly dropping her FMD, before she grasped the hem of her skirt. "What did you say?!" A blush was creeping across her face.

"Red. They would be a good color for you if you ever needed glasses." He said placing his hand on the chin as if picturing it.

"Get that image out of your head!" She shouted angrily.

"What? Red is a good color on you. Even your FMD frame is red" He said with a laugh.

"But that's not what you were thinking about" she pointed a finger. The sudden chime of new mail alerted them back to reality. "Just remind me to make sure I have everything this time." She gave a light sigh before putting on her FMD and selecting the mail icon.

They both had received an e-mail from Yata telling them to go the area words Sigma: Betrayed, Forgotten, Nothingness and to come fully prepared. The both gated in and slipped into their alter egos.

They both rounded up as many healing items as they could possible before heading to the chaos gate. They didn't bother partying another member because they saw this as their fight only and didn't want anyone else involved…they'd regret their mistake later. When they logged into the area they found it to be a dungeon way under leveled for them to have a significant level gain.

"He's probably on the lowest level and most likely sitting right in front of the Gott statue waiting for a low leveled player to pass by." Haseo suspected.

"I hate people like that. You trek all the way to the bottom of a dungeon just to get pked! Well at least the getting to the bottom will be easy enough." Alkaid said ready to set off.

"Not so fast!" A voice in the distance called out causing them to jump.

"Yata?" Haseo asked as he recognized the voice. The both looked around but could not find him.

"Good, you can hear me. Listen I'm using a form of communication we used back in R:1 to help others through a similar situation." He explained. "I won't be directly joining you but I should be able to give you information on the area." He paused as if awaiting questions when he received none he continued. "The character we know as Sora is most likely in this area for this area had an unusually large memory meaning that something that shouldn't exist is located here. In other words…"

"Sora" Haseo said finishing his sentence. "Alkaid let's go!" He took off with out any further explanation from Yata.

She took off after him "hey it might be dangerous, we should-" her words were lost when battle music started playing, two golem like figures appear before them.

Haseo wasted no time to draw his twin blades to try and cut one down. When he turned to see the fallen monster he found that it still stood! But more surprisingly he had not even taken out a tenth of the monsters HP! "The hell?" Was his reaction. He moved to attack the monster again but it wound its fist and took a swing at him. The hit connected dealing major damage to his hp. "Why the hell is this thing so powerful?!"

"It seem the data anomaly in the area also affected the monsters levels as well!" Yata's voice warned from the blue.

"You could have told us that earlier" Alkaid shouted as she drew her own weapons as Haseo switched over to his duel guns.

"I'm sorry" was the only thing he could say. 'This is just like back then.' Memories from Yata's past when he went by the name Wiseman flooded back to him. 'I hope we don't have another incident on our hands.'

Minutes later the battle between the monsters was finally over. Haseo and Alkaid stood heaving trying to catch their breath. "I've never seen a normal monster that strong." Haseo said between breaths.

"And I never want to see one of those again. We even wasted a good number of items." She used a fairy's orb and brought up a completed map for the current floor. "Our best bet is to sneak by the monster until the final floor, so we'll need equipment customized with cat whiskers. That way we won't have waste any items. And we'll be ready to take on Sora."

"Smart and has good looks. You made a wise choice Haseo!" A Yata's voice called from over the speakers causing Alkaid to blush.

"Shut it old man!" Haseo shouted to wherever the voice was coming from. The both changed their equipment and used a speed charm to move through the dungeon at a faster pace.

Several floors later they found a doorway clouded in purple mist. "I'm getting a feeling of nostalgia" Yata's voice echoed over the silence. "Listen, you two if you step beyond this doorway you may be faced with something you can never run from. And if you fail…" he paused again as if trying to muster up the courage. "If you fail there's a good chance you won't be coming back so I suggest you make your peace."

His words cut through both of them like a knife. Back in the physical world the both of them removed their FMD's to look at each other. "Ryou, are you sure you want to do this?"

There was a moment of silence before he opened his mouth "I have to do this. If this thing is a part of me I have to take responsibility for it. But…" He paused again "…that doesn't mean you have to go through with it."

"As if!" Chika suddenly said sounding energetic. "Who's going to bail you out if you get in a tight spot again?"

Ryou liked the thought of her trying to encourage him but this wasn't a time to be joking. He stood up from his computer and walked over to her and crouched next to her "Chika I'm serious. This isn't like before where you didn't know what could happen. This time we might fall into a coma and never wake up." He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head in her lap. "I told you I don't want to lose you again."

She placed a hand on the back of his head "Ryou do you remember what I told you?" He looked up at her. "I'm persistent and I never give up" she said quoting herself. "Even if you tell me to leave I would have come back. Plus…" she cupped his cheeks and closed the distance between their faces until their foreheads touched "I know my knight and shinning armor will protect me." She then pressed their lips together for a short kiss "Remember you are my emperor." She kissed him again. "And I am your empress. As long as we fight side by side we can beat anything."

She kissed him once more but this time it was much deeper the both pulled each other into each others arms yearning to hold the other until the of time. And they would have done so if it wasn't for the pest known as Yata constantly asking them to respond so they had to break away. "Talk about unfair" Ryou said before placing his FMD on but not before seeing Chika cutely sticking her tongue out at him.

"We hear you old man!" This time it was Alkaid being the rude one. She was obviously peeved that he had ruined their special moment.

"Did something happen" Yata asked as he adjusted his glasses, which they couldn't see.

"It's better that you not know." Haseo replied giving Yata everything he needed to figure it out. "Well Alkaid are you ready?" He asked her as he set his equipment back to normal. She turned and nodded back to him.

"Be careful. I won't be able to help you beyond this point." Yata's final message came over the speakers.

They stepped through the doorway and found them selves in an area they'd never seen before. They had been warped to a strange mountain range where multiple sized rocks floated around. Upon closer inspection the rocks seemed to be pieces of an area broken into pieces. "Haseo where are we?" Alkaid questioned as she looked around.

"You're in my area now" A voice said behind them. The both turned to see the green haired twin blade they've been looking for. He smirked at them "have you changed your mind about giving me your member addresses?" They glared back at him giving the response that there was no chance of that happening.

"I see then…" he reached for the mantle he wore "I guess I'll just have to get rid of you like all the others" Sora pulled of mantle revealing his characters full figure. He was dressed in full purple and wore light armor on his chest, arms and legs. He held up an arm and smirked "I think I'll start with the cute red head." A blade shot from the gauntlet on his wrist as he lunged forward at his target.

Taken aback by the comment Alkaid had no time to defend herself. The blow was inches from her, she winced at the oncoming blow…it never came. She opened her eyes to see Haseo blocking the attack. "Come on focus! If this guy is supposed to be me he won't let up at all!" Haseo said before turning to block Sora's other blade with his free hand.

"I see so it's a battle between twin blades" a grin spread across Sora's face. "So in the end it comes down to a contest of speed!" Out of the corner of his eye Sora caught something moving towards him. He jumped back just in time to avoid a slash from Alkaid. She instantly turned to attack with a follow up. Sora was prepared to block her but she suddenly leapt to the side. He turned to the side to prepare for her next attack when he was suddenly hit by several blue rings and sent flying back.

He did a flip to regain his composure and looked up in the direction of the rings origin. "Ah so you're not a normal twin blade are you?" He saw Haseo glaring back at him with a large scythe in his hand.

"You may be fast but…I highly doubt you can keep up with the two of us!" Haseo lunged, as he exchanged weapons for his broad sword.

But his blow was met with a counter from Sora. "Shame it looks like your member address would have been valuable!" Sora shouted that last part as he spun around and attacked Haseo from behind, pushing him away.

"Haseo?! I'll kill you!" The red haired twin blade shouted as she came down from the air. Sora leapt at her and deflected her attack with ease. She clicked her tongue as she glared back at his smirking face while she fell to the ground. "Haseo launch me!" Without a second thought he pulled back on his sword like a bat before swinging it forward and launching her back at Sora. Alkaid let out a war cry before she yelled out "Chaotic strike!" She sliced multiple times at Sora as he tried to block. She pulled back a fist and swung forward blasting him into one of the floating pieces of area which began to crumble around the.

The clang of metal could be heard as they clashed within the smoke. "That's a technique I never seen before. Now here's one of mine, staccato!" Sora slashed at her multiple times before doing an aerial spin and followed up with up with one final slash that threw her out of the smoke as she let out and agonized cry as she slid to a halt next to Haseo.

She grunted as she stood up clutching her arm. "Dammit what was that? I've never seen a twin blade use an attack like that." As the smoke cleared she could see Sora with his hand on the side of his head as he stuck his tongue out at her thus putting her in a worse move.

Haseo put an arm out in front of her to stop her from advancing "Calm down. I'm the one who should be mad. To think I used to be this childish." He said with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"It's not nice to talk in the middle of a fight!" Sora shouted as he charged at the pair, weapons raised. He swung only to be blocked by Alkaid. "You again?! Stay out of my way!" He prepared to attack with his free arm but there was a loud bang and his attack was deflected. Looking past Alkaid he saw Haseo had a gun pointed directly at him.

Sora sprinted off to the side as Haseo began firing round after round after him. Sing the fragmented area as coverage Sora was still only barely able to get away. "You can't hide from me!" Haseo shouted before he fired in multiple directions yet all the shots converged on their target for Sora could be heard letting out a scream of pain. "Alkaid go!"

She charged in the direction of the scream "I know, I know!" She dashed around the fragmented area to clash head on with Sora. She had him on the defensive now. Her attacks came fast and heavy as she forced him back as he blocked.

"Staccato!" Sora shouted trying to activate his skill again but Alkaid jumped back and the attack never activated. Not wanting to miss the opening she swung side but Sora flipped backward as he clicked his tongue. He landed on a piece of area to stay out of range but she still pursue for she leapt after him but he kicked off the platform just narrowly dodging a hit from Haseo's gun.

"Ghost Falcon!" Alkaid shouted as she flew after Sora, her character covered in a ghostly aura. She slashed once sending him into the air before she followed it up with something that resembled a flip kick to send him higher. She rained down an immeasurable number of blows, she held her sword high as she concentrated the ghostly aura into the, before performing a cross slash that drove him back down to the earth. "Haseo finish him off!"

"Justice!" Haseo flew towards the falling Sora and slashed him once, twice, before raising his own weapons for a cross slash. He fired round after explosive round of bullets before flipping to pound him back toward the earth. "It all ends here Sora! Double trigger: Judgment!" Haseo fired two powerful shots before pulling both guns back for one explosive finish.

Sora's body landed with a loud thump on the ground looking up at the sky as Haseo and Alkaid stood above him as if making sure he was dead. They were sure it was over but they didn't see any indication of Sora logging out or being deleted. Instead he started laughing! "This isn't over you hear me! It's not, IT'S NOT, **IT'S NOT!**" His laughter grew louder and soon was being accompanied bya roar of static.

Back in the net slums Yata was reading over the areas data. "Oh no!" He shouted as he gazed at the information in front of him.

"What is it Master Yata" Pi asked not knowing the reason for his concern.

"It's this data spike. The only time it's ever reached something of this magnitude was back in R:1" he had a solemn look on his face. "…back when we had to combat the phases of the epitaph."

Sora character design completely disappeared and was replaced with strings of data in that had begun to take form of something else. The data strings inexplicably shattered and where Sora once stood was now a large figure made completely out of stone. There were two large horns on its head and a ruby red rod of crystal in his hand. It looked like…death.

"Haseo what is that thing?!" Alkaid shouted afraid of the large being that she had never gazed upon.

"It's…" Haseo was a little surprised his self, "my epitaph!"

"What? That's your?! Wait…is this the thing you used to beat me during the demon palace tournament?!" She sounded livid now that she actually had proof that he had cheated to defeat her.

"We'll talk about that later! I suggest you get as far away as possible, things are about to get crazy!" He glared back at the monster "so you're what my epitaph used to look like? We'll it doesn't matter because I'm stronger than you ever were!" He shouted as if trying to intimidate the monster. "Come on, I'm right here!" Haseo clinched his fist as if he were trying to dig down to the depths of his being as if to summon something. "SKEITH!" He shouted the name of his epitaph to the heavens to call it forth…yet nothing happened. "Come on Skeith!" He shouted again…and still nothing came. "Why won't my epitaph come out?!"

While Haseo tried to summon his epitaph the figure advanced on him. It raised the staff in its hand before swinging it. The attack blasted not only Haseo into the air, taking a chunk of his hp, but bits of the earth as well. He was swiftly joined at the side by Alkaid who used a healing item to recover his lost hp. "That things a monster! It's to damn strong!"

"And we can't log out" She added. "Smoke bombs don't even seem to work. How are we going to escape?!"

Haseo stood drawing his broad sword. "We don't," he lunged at Skeith! "We cut it down to size!" He delivered a mighty slash but the monsters life bar showed no sign of lowering significantly. He slashed again yet he still saw nothing. "This defense is crazy! Alkaid help me out!" She joined him in comboing the monster but he still didn't see any change in its health "Armor break!" Haseo swung his sword in a larger circle before pulling back and slamming the blade down on Skeith causing a huge explosion. Its hp still didn't change. He finally realized what was going on. It wasn't that Skeith's defense was high. They couldn't damage it at all!

Skeith held its rod high into the air before thrusting it into the ground creating a large shock wave all around itself and drove them back. The word 'judgment' appeared in the text log and both characters were surrounded by a strange mist that formed into a single light that rose into the sky before both Haseo and Alkaid were frozen in prisons of ice that shattered dealing a large amount of damage sending their hp into the red zone.

They both dropped to their knees. "Wh-what the hell was that?" Haseo asked to no one in particular. This things to strong."

Both their HP turned back to green "come on Haseo. We can't give up now!"

"But we can't even damage the thing! How the hell are we supposed to beat it?" he asked growing angry with the her that she didn't understand the situation.

"I don't know!" She shouted back at him. "But you've beaten other things like this right? Maybe we have to attack it a certain way? But I do know you promised to both be my knight in shinning arm and do whatever it takes no matter how demanding or needy I got, so stop acting like it's over and at least try. Do it for me Ryou?" She asked him almost sounding as if she'd cry if he didn't agree.

He sighed as he turned to face Skeith for her. "Fine. But if-"

"When!" she shouted back at him.

"Fine, WHEN we get out of here you so owe me a huge favor." He said putting emphasis on the when. She smiled and nodded back at him. "Okay let's go!" The both charge at the monster ready for a full assault. Skeith lifted his staff again and swung at the two, but they blocked and launched their onslaught. Just when they were about to land a hit Skeith swiftly moved out of the way as if it had never stood their in the first place.

They turned back to face Skeith but something seemed off. Looking closely the noticed that its staff was gone! "Where the staff go?" They said in unison as they looked around frantically.

"Haseo!" Alkaid shouted gaining Haseo's attention. He turned to see that the staff had appeared behind her and was now lifting her into the sky. "Haseo, I can't move!"

He turned back to skeith to see something similar to a bracelet form around skeith's arm. Before five prongs sprout from it. "Is that?" Images of what Haseo thought he was seeing swam through his mind. "No! It's…" he didn't have to say it for the words he fear appeared in the text log. Those two horrifying words were 'data drain'. Several streams of rainbow colored data shot from the bracelet and converged on Alkaid and shot out her back, she let out an agonizing scream. She was incased in a strange yellow orb before she fell back to the ground.

Haseo turned his eyes from Alkaid fearing the worse "You bastard!!!" He lunged at the skeith with all he had. He was now an enraged man who had nothing left to lose. "Give her back dammit" he swung at Skeith but the being easily dodged the blow and slipped pass him. "I said giver her back" Haseo switched to his dual guns and fired round after round at the monster yet still doing no damage. He saw something blue floating down from the sky but he ignored it and continued firing. He switched weapons again, this time his dual sword, and lunged at skeith.

He was feet away when the blue thing he saw earlier appeared between them. It was a single blue orb of light. "…That's" was the only word he could say before the orb exploded pushing everything back behind a wall of blue flame. In the center of the flame stood a being modeled after one of the three legendary descendants of Fianna, it was azure flame Kite. Azure Kite stared back at Haseo with an empty eyes. "Get out of my way!" Haseo lunged forward still after skeith but Kite raised a hand to him.

Haseo stopped afraid that he might be data drained but instead Azure Kite just pointed in his direction before wordlessly turning around to face skeith as he drew his weapons 'empty skies'. Haseo wandered what he was pointing to until he heard a groan. He turned to see Alkaid's character still standing. "That attack gave me every status effect in the game."

Haseo smiled, happy to know that she was okay. He wanted to ask her if she was okay but she had rushed past him to attack Skeith. She didn't even bother questioning who the other player was. Truth is she didn't care, she wanted revenge!!! Haseo quickly rejoined the battle as all three of them unleashed blow after blow on Skeith before they all activated a skill trigger in unison. The words "Ghost falcon" and a cry from Azure Kite filled the are as they unleashed the same move on Skeith. The words protect break appeared on above skeith. "What's protect break?" They both asked in unison. They heard a strange hiss come from Azure kite as he raised his arm and pointed at skeith. The same bracelet appearing around his arm, Alkaid momentarily flinched, before it shot out the same blast from earlier but targeting skeith.

They once again saw the shattering of data but now Skeith was replaced by floating rocks that seemed to have shaped his form. They charged in to attack Skeith new form and were surprised. They actually now did damage! Skeith tried to run and in some last ditch effort to survive reused its judgment skill. However it was severely weakened. It tried to run but within seconds it was struck down.

The rocks slowly disappeared and the only thing left were Sora's weapons which shattered when as soon as they touched the ground. "I guess it's over." Haseo said as he put away his weapons.

"Yeah I guess you're right." Alkaid said agreeing as she smiled back at him.

Haseo was about to thank Azure Kite as well but when he turned to him all three of them were surrounded by the light of logging out. They appeared back in Breg Epona, Azure kite gone. "Guess he left. Alkaid you can go ahead and log out I still have a few thing to do."

"Sure. I'm a little tired anyway." She logged out.

Chika pulled off her FMD laid back on the couch. She massaged her eyes as they adjusted to the now darkened room. "If this keeps up I really am going to need glasses huh Ryou?" She turned to see him still playing, the click of the button keys let her know that he was typing a message to someone. "Ryou who are you sending a message to?" Chika asked as she looked over his shoulder. Ryou jumped at the sudden sound of her voice and blocked the screen. She sensed that he was trying to hide something. "Come on let me see!" She tried to push him out of the way but he wouldn't move. "Move Ryou!"

"No way!"

"Come on move"

"No!"

"Move or I'll…" Chika stamped her foot threateningly.

Ryou grabbed her arm to stop her from moving. "Or you'll what?"

Chika struggled in his grasp but he wouldn't let go. She looked up at him growling. She felt a chill run through her spine. It was similar to the same feeling she got earlier that day, she could still feel Ryou giving her 'that' look "Ryou let go." She took a step back.

"No way" there was a slight chuckle in his voice as he followed.

"This isn't funny Ryou" she continued walking back. "My parents are probably worried about me."

"They've probably figured out that you're here" He smiled at her through the dark as they continued walking.

"But…but…but-ah!" She had tripped over something in the and fell. She expected to meet with hard floor but instead landed something big and soft. It was Ryou's bed. She could feel him hovering over her. "Ryou get up I have to go."

She felt something soft brush against her neck. He had kissed it. "Come on stay?" Chika looked reluctant as she gazed of to the side, trying not to look Ryou in the eyes. He chuckled before kissing her neck again. "Please stay?" She looked like she had no intention of turning to face. Ryou gave a frustrated sigh before leaning close to her "we can pick up where Yata interrupted us."

That had did it. She had made the attempt to look him in they eye and that's when he claimer her lips. He pulled her in a tight hug, he could feel her relax in his arms before she cupped his cheeks in her hands. She suddenly pulled away "can you please tell me what we were typing?"

"You'll find out" Ryou followed this with a sly smile.

She groaned in defeat "…fine" she attempted to look depressed but she couldn't fool him. He pulled her close again an kissed her again, this time there would be no interruptions. They could be in each others arms forever.

Back at Ryou's computer his inbox was open. He had received an e-mail from everyone on his user list. All the messages were titled the same thing: Re: you have been invited to Hy Basil for the wedding of Haseo and Alkaid.

FIN.

Woot! It's over. That was longer than expected though. But I bet not a single one of you were expecting a phase battle! I had to do research on skeith and watch a few battles to see what his attacks were like. I'm happy how it turned out too. Now I just have on the epilogue. I'll get around to it…eventually. Well later!


	9. Epitaph

Okay epilogue time! But first things first I've gotten a few pm about what Haseo said to Alkaid to get her stop talking. The hints were that it was something she showed him, it was something she left over at his house, and it was something that was red. That may have left it unclear so I left one final clue that should have given it away. It was when Ryou mentioned that red was a good color on her and Chika grabbed the hem of her skirt. It was because at the same time he was giving a hidden message. Yes he meant she would look good in red glasses but he was also referring to the red thing she showed him. And if I'm correct wasn't she only wearing only a shirt when the following day of the massive battle they had and didn't she lift that shirt meaning-

Chika: Don't you dare say it!

Me: why not? The people want to know

Chika: because they don't need to know!

Ryou: Hey what's with all the yelling?

Me: Chika is trying to prevent me from telling the audience what you threatened her with.

Ryou: Oh you mean what color underwear she was wearing?

Chika: RYOU?! attacks

Me: glad it's not me. Let's start the epilogue

Epitaph

Ryou sat watching the clock tick by and groaned. It was only about a few minutes left before he could go home. He groan was for two reasons. One being the fact that he wanted to leave because he had an important meeting to attend to with the girl in the seat next to him. The second was that he was craving to hold said girl in his arms!

It had been a few weeks after their run in with Sora and over the course of the week Chika was forbade from going near him outside of school. Apparently her father didn't take to kindly to his daughter spending the night over a boy's house that he never met. They didn't even risk walking home together because they'd always get the feeling they were being watched. And quite frankly their secret meetings on the school roof during lunch wasn't really helping the situation it just a reminder that they'd have to go back to class with unreleased tension aimed at each other.

He looked over in Chika's direction when she tried to steal a glance at him but only to look away red faced when he met her gaze. She too had been eagerly been awaiting today. When she closed herself in her room after being scolded by her parents she found a mass of emails saying congratulations. She didn't understand why until she saw an e-mail from Ryou labeled 'favor'. When she opened she found out that it was actually a proposal which she immediately responded too.

Chika wanted to so badly to call him to talk to him about it but her phone was taken away and she couldn't use the computer because her parents would have figured it out so she was left to contain her feeling until they next time they saw each other.

Now the ceremony had been weeks in planning and today was the chosen day because it was once again the end of the week and Chika's father said she could see him again but he requested to meet the boy his daughter would go so far for. But that could wait until the day after she married her knight.

The bell finally tolled as the students bowed to their teacher before leaving the classroom. Ryou and Chika wasted no time trying to get out of the school and to the place where they shared so many memories and would make many more. 'Their' home. They practically ran the whole way there. Chika once again taking pride in opening the door but was immediately backed against the closed and pulled into a kissing fit by Ryou.

They pulled away from each other gasping for air "good to see you still haven't lost your touch" she commented as she rested her head on his chest as he held he tightly.

Ryou kissed the crown of her head "Or it could be that it's been a long time since we've got to do that in private." He said putting emphasis on the word long.

"I know" she lightly kissed his cheek "but remember you promised that you'd meet my dad. And I can't stay got it? CAN'T!"

Ryou sighed "man can't I get one night with the girl I'll be getting married to?"

She broke away from the embrace and walked toward the living room "You did and look were that got us." She glared at him over her shoulder. "Now come on we have work to do!"

"Ryou just smirked and followed "whatever you say my empress." He laughed as he watched a blush spread across her cheeks.

They moved to the living room to log into the world as they have done before. This time however Chika chose to sit next to Ryou for when they had to share 'that' special moment. The both adorned their FMD to slip into their alternate persona.

"WELCOME!" The two were greeted by a barrage of cheers as soon as they logged in which startled both players and a few others. Everyone they had invited had somehow crammed themselves into the area that contained Mac Anu's warp gate.

"Yo Haseo!" Kuhn said as he placed his arm on Haseo's shoulders "I knew you could do it!" There was a big grin on his face. "So tell me is she as cute out of game as she is in game." He whispered this part to Haseo so no one could here. But Pi was able to figure it out and dragged him away by the ear.

"Um…Alkaid" said a shy Atoli.

"So I see you've come to congratulate me on my victory in our little fight over Ryou?" Alkaid said with a smug grin on her face.

"Ryou?" Atoli asked with a tilted head.

Alkaid took pleasure at laughing at the expression on her face "You know Haseo's real name! Don't tell me you didn't know." She even put in small chuckle.

"Alkaid you don't have to rube it in" Haseo said with a sigh in his voice.

"Yeah Alkaid you don't have to mean" Silabus said still somehow smiling.

"Fine. Fine. But what about you Silabus? We were good friends before Haseo came into the picture." She said with a raised brow.

But Silabus just returned it with a confused one "huh? What do you mean by that?"

Alkaid gave a frustrated sigh "Never mind. You're just as clueless as you were before."

"um excuse me" a quiet voice called as it pushed through the crowd before finally pushing through to the other side. The voice belonged to a female twin blade, who looked almost exactly like Alkaid! The only differences was that her hair was black, she didn't have the fan thing and finally the belt that she wore formed a large bow at her back before flowing downward into the part of the belt that resembled a lotus flower.

"Big sister!" the girl cried before pulling Alkaid into a tight hug.

"SISTER!?" everyone minus Silabus, Haseo and Alkaid cried in unity at the words of the girl.

"Uh hey Nanase" Alkaid said with a slight laugh in her voice. (Note: like I've said before Nanase is the MC of .hack//alchor. Another thing is that I made up the fact that Nanase calls Alkaid big sister because I've only seen the translated version of .hack//alchor volume 1. So if she never calls Alkaid sister I'm wrong. But if she does I obviously have psychic powers!)

"Alkaid you never told us you had a sister." Atoli said as she looked over the girl.

"She doesn't" Haseo said receiving a confused look from the others.

"You see Nanase refers to Alkaid as her sister because there character design is so similar." Silabus explained. "But up until recently the two have been at odds over something."

"But now that's all behind us right Alkaid?" the girl said with a smile on her face jus before whispering something to Alkaid.

"I wonder what they were fighting about?" Silabus asked confused.

"Clueless." Haseo said glaring at Silabus.

A cough could be heard over the group who turned to see the pink haired tribal grappler adjusting her glasses. "I'm sorry to spoil the reunion but aren't we supposed to be doing something?"

Realization clouded over the group as they remembered there objective. "We have to go!" all the girls shouted at once. "And you're not supposed to see the bride before the wedding!" They all said as they pushed Alkaid off in the direction of the harbor.

The remaining boys sighed "Well Haseo I recommend bachelor party in the time we have left until the party with a couple girls I know…but I don't think the misses would like it." Kuhn said giving a suggestion.

"I don't think she'd like it either, though it does seem like a good idea." Haseo replied with a nervous laugh before letting out a cry in pain.

"Something the matter Haseo?" Kuhn asked with a raised brow.

Silabus slammed his fist into his palm "you know Alkaid told me that she recently moved. And then if you think about how fast their relationship improved that must mean they've met off game."

"So in other words she's probably sitting right next to you as we speak!" Kuhn said finishing his thought. "Reminds me of when I was younger and dating my high school sweet heart." Kuhn said recalling past memories before sighing. "Will you tell her I'm sorry and that it was just a joke?"

There was a moment of silence before Haseo responded "she says it wasn't very funny."

"That's Alkaid for you!" Silabus said enthusiastic. "Well shall we be going? She hates it when were late."

"Yeah she can get really impatient sometime. OW!" Haseo said crying out in pain. "Hey that reminds me where's Gaspard?"

"Oh, he went on ahead to get everything set up" Silabus explained.

"Yeah that guy really tries hard" Kuhn said which everyone agreed to.

"…What about Endrance and Piros?" Haseo asked feeling sick to his stomach.

"They've been sent elsewhere." Silabus explained once again.

"But then again Sakubo might tell Endrance though" Kuhn said causing Haseo's face to cloud over.

And sure enough when they reached the island of Hy Basil Endrance was there. "Oh Haseo!" Endrance said as he ran up to Haseo.

"Wh-what the hell are you doing here?!" Haseo said taking a step back.

"I've come to see you dear Haseo" Endrance said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Haseo stop trying to steal master En!" Sakubo said as he/she/it poked it's head from Endrance.

"Looks like Saku is with us today" Kuhn said as both he and Silabus nodded ignoring

"I'm not trying to do anything!" Haseo saying as he protested. "Hey what are you doing?!" Haseo shouted as Endrance touched his cheek.

"I'm here for you Haseo. Just because you're saying you're marrying that brutish Alkaid you truly love me!" Endrance cooed as he rubbed Haseo's cheek.

"Hey! Hey! Get away from me! What are you doing!" Haseo shouted freaking out. "Ow ow ow. You're hurting me!" Everyone looked at Haseo with a strange look.

"Um Haseo are you okay?" Silabus said looking over the motionless Haseo.

Within second Haseo's character sprung back into life. "You cheating bastard!" Haseo shouted…but in a voice that belonged to Alkaid. "First you cheat me out of my title of emperor and now you try to take Haseo away from me!"

"Ah she took the controller from him" Silabus said which both Kuhn and Saku nodded along with.

"What is a brute like you doing in the body of my beloved?" Endrance said glaring at Haseo/Alkaid.

"Like I care what a cheater like you thinks!" A smile then spread across his/her face. "And Ryou's sitting right here next to me."

"Ryou? Is that Haseo's real name? It's such a beautiful name" Endrance cooed again before his face turned into one of anger. "What are you doing with him?"

Haseo/Alkaid scoffed at the question "I guess it's true what they say about cheaters. They all are too stupid to actually think of anything."

Endrance gritted his teeth at the remark "let's not forget that Haseo used the same power I used to defeat you."

But Haseo/Alkaid just laughed it off "I know."

"You do?!" Kuhn and Saku said in unison. "But I thought only G.U members knew about it."

But Haseo/Alkaid just waved it off "don't worry about it. The old guy with the glasses explained it to me."

"Do you mean me?" Said old guy questioned as he adjusted his glasses startling Haseo/Alkaid. "And yes I did explain it to her Kuhn. A situation occurred where she needed to know." He explained with folded arms. "Now isn't it about time the rest of you get ready the ceremony is about to start."

"Oh crap, I gotta go!" Alkaid said before she handed over control of Haseo back to his creator. "I'm sorry about that" Haseo said scratching his head.

Minutes later Haseo stood atop the staircase over looking the crowd of mingling people. Along side him stood Yata who would be the one to marry them. "Calm down Haseo. You shouldn't get all worked over a simple online wedding." Yata said trying to comfort him.

"But this isn't exactly a normal one now is it?" He said with a nervous laugh. "I mean we personally know and love each other so to us this is just like the real thing."

Yata stared back at him with a stern look "well then…you're basically screwed."

"You're not helping!" Haseo shouted only to be drowned out by the music to start.

In a two lines the best men and bride maids walked down the isle arms locked together. The males all dressed in white suites while the women all wore pink dresses.

First came Silabus and Nanase. "I can't believe Alkaid and Haseo are getting married. But there personalities do fit together well."

"I'm happy for big sis. Ad if I catch the bouquet WE can be next!" she said a smile no her face.

"Huh what?" He said not catching the last part.

"Oh nothing" the raven haired girl said with a giggle.

Next followed Pi and Kuhn. "I'm really happy for the two of them" Kuhn said with a smile on his face. "But it's sad because today I lose one of my greatest wingmen!" It sounded as if he was sobbing.

"Oh grow up will you?" Pi said brimming with anger.

"Come on Pi you don't wanna get mad at the wedding. Don't wanna ruin it do you?" Then Silabus had a geniusly evil idea. "Hey Pi, how about after this we round everyone up and get married! You know it would be a waste not too!" That was the last straw Pi smacked Kuhn in the face knocking him into the crowd as she continued walking as if it never happened.

Next came Atoli and Antares "So the chick has finally flown from the nest, I'm glad."

'"Yes I'm…happy too." Atoli said hesitantly.

"Doesn't sound like you are little lady" he said with a chuckle in his voice. "You probably had feeling for him in the past but if you really love him. You have to let him go and wish for his happiness."

"You're right…" Atoli said with a sigh "but I can't believe I lost to her!"

And finally on the arm of Taihaku came the bride. She was dressed in a single strap, sleeveless white gown with whit cloves that reached to her elbow. Above her head floated a veil that trailed behind her. "It makes me happy to be giving you away on this blessed day."

"Thank you Taihaku" Alkaid said with a smile. "You were always like a father to me here."

They ascended the stairs, taking their places. Alkaid's in front of Haseo a blush spread across her face. "Alkaid…" Haseo said as he looked her over "you're beautiful."

She flinched at the remark "wha-what!?" Her blush grew deeper "you really thing so?" she asked as she looked the dress over. "It doesn't really feel like me."

"Don't worry about it looks good" He smiled at her "And it doesn't matter what you like here. I know the real you is beautiful…I know that Chika is beautiful." Offline Ryou grabbed Chika's hand and gave it a little squeeze.

Now this was too much for Alkaid as she tried to hide her blushing face behind the bouquet receiving a laugh from the others. "Well it's about time we started this ceremony isn't it?" Yata said with a stern voice. "Dearly beloved…" He said beginning the ceremony. It proceeded along perfectly until they got to one point. "You may now recite your vows."

"What?! Vows?!" Haseo was taken aback having not written or prepared everything.

"WHAT?!?!?!" Alkaid shouted angry beyond words. "What do you mean you didn't write any vows?!"

"I didn't know we were supposed to write any" Haseo said with the only excuse he had.

Unfortunately it wasn't good enough. Alkaid let out an angry growl. "YOU IDIOT!"

"OW"

"I can't believe you!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"It's a wedding how can you forget!"

"Ow! I'm sorry! Ow!" Even though no one could see their characters moving they all knew that in the real world he was receiving the beating of his life. When it seemed like it was finally over both their characters started moving again, Alkaid looked absolutely furious.

"Well Alkaid do you have something to say?" Yata asked slightly nervous.

"Yes I do but I'm not sure he deserves to here it," she glared at Haseo. "But I don't wanna make a bad situation worse so here goes." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Haseo when we first met you were just some guy who stood in my way of reclaiming my title. But then we started playing together, laughing together, doing hot super secret training together," with that last remark she smirked in Atoli's direction. "And when I lost my consciousness ad fell into darkness you were the light that called me home. And for that I love you."

"That so beautiful waah!" Nanase said out of the blue nearly killing the moment.

"Yes that truly was" Yata said agreeing as he prepared to continue "no who so-"

"Wait" Haseo said interrupting Yata. "I want to say something."

Everyone knew that he was most likely going to try to redeem himself. He took a deep breath "Alkaid when we first met you called me a lying cheating bastard."

"Which you are" she said smugly.

Haseo just sighed before continuing "But as time passed you grew to trust me. You confided in me when you needed to help you friend and you showed me your feelings when we went to train together. But just as I got to know you I lost you. I didn't want that to happen to anyone else so I fought to bring you back to me. And just like the stubborn girl you are you came back. I held you tightly in my arms that day at Arche Koeln waterfall wanting to never let go and told you not to ever disappear in me like that again."

"Haseo…" Alkaid said blushing wildly.

"But my beautiful star left me again" He smiled at her "but she returned to me under a different name and a different form. I was able to meet the girl behind the one I loved. Now I could touch you, hold you, kiss you.' He said the last part before having a laugh at her expression. "There were times where I've made you made at me but I had my way of calming you down" he winked at her.

"What I'm trying to say is I need you Alkaid. I may be the emperor of the arena but every emperor needs a woman at his side."

Alkaid knew where this was going. "Haseo don't you dare say it!"

He ignored her. "So Alkaid I want to ask you…"

"Stop it!" she protested.

He ignored her again as he moved closer to her, "will you be my empress?"

"Arrrg! No he said it!" Alkaid whined. "Did you really need to call me that in front of everyone?"

"Don't grow so angry Alkaid" Taihaku said defending Haseo. "He only spoke the feeling he had in his heart. And I must say they were spoken like a true man and a true emperor."

"Indeed they were" Yata said as he adjusted his glasses "I can see that these two can't wait much longer for the big finale and I don't think either of them would say no to each other so Haseo, you may kiss the bride." At that moment the pair touched their lips together becoming one as the received cheers from their friends. When it ended the smiled at each other before holding each other in a tight hug, Alkaid rested her head on his chest as he rested his head atop hers.

Back in the material world Ryou felt someone tug off his FMD to see Chika's face inches from his. She lightly kissed before going deeper. He placed his arm around her waist and pulled her down to rest on his lap as she held his shirt tightly in her hands. The kiss lasted for minutes on end until the finally broke away. Chika rested her head on his chest listening to the rabid beat of his heart as she still clung to him.

"You don't want to go do you?" He asked to the fragile looking girl he held in his arms. She sat up and stared back at him with a saddened face, her eyes pleading with him to let her stay. "I'm sorry but you know how your dad is. The first time we were lucky, the second we were forbidden to see each other…"

"But that didn't stop us Ryou" she said attempting to sound cheerful.

"Yeah I know" he laughed. "But I don't want to find out what happens on the third time." Chiks looked as if she wanted to cry. "So, why don't we go to your house to say hello to dear old dad." Chika instantly perked up before wrapping her arms around his neck to kiss him.

Best wishes

Me: It's finally done! That sure took a lot of work. I wanted it to finish it by my birthday but unfortunately by the time I upload this it'll be a little after 12 midnight so my birthday would be over.

Chika: well happy birthday Mr. Author guy!

Me: Thanks…hey Chika I'm 16 now. And you're 16 too. So how about me and you spend some quality time together?!

Chika: Idiot the G.U story happens in 2017. You live in the year 2008. If you do the math I'm not even born in your time!

Me: …dang


	10. Anouncement

**ATTENTION**

This is a public service announcement from yours truly. THIS IS NOT AN UPDATE. So if you were hoping for a sudden additional chapter, please forgive me. HOWEVER, what this is in actuality is an announcement. As it was my most popular story to date "Meeting You on the Other Side" will be receiving an overhaul and will be REWRITTEN! The story line and all of his contents will remain primarily unaffected. These changes will be editorial as I wish to fix many grammatical errors that were made by myself in the past. There may be some minor changes with certain parts of the story like with things said by characters as well. There will also be an additional chapter published to further give life to a specific portion of the story. Expect these changes to occur over the next few weeks. I would like to thank all of you old fans and possibly new who have stood by me in my career. Thank you for having me!


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